California lawmakers voted to send Gov. Gavin Newsom bills expanding workers’ compensation coverage for farmworkers with heat injuries and dependents of fallen first responders.
Also last week, the Senate passed an amended bill directing the Division of Workers’ Compensation to create medical-legal templates for qualified medical evaluators. The outcome of the Assembly vote on concurrence with that bill was not available by deadline.
The Assembly voted 61-17 to concur with Senate amendments and send the governor AB 1336, which would create a presumption that a heat injury is compensable when the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board finds that an agricultural employer violated heat safety rules.
The bill was amended to add a sunset clause, effective Jan. 1, 2031, and to clarify that a WCAB finding that an employer violated workplace safety rules would have no bearing on a Cal/OSHA investigation.
SB 447 would allow minor dependents of deceased first responders to receive health benefits until age 26, aligning with a provision in the Affordable Care Act allowing children to stay on their parents’ health plan until that age.
The Senate also unanimously passed AB 1293, which would direct the DWC to create certain med-legal templates.
The bill was amended in the Senate to require the templates to include all statutory requirements for a qualified medical evaluator report and to say parties would not be required to use the template developed by the DWC to communicate with a panel QME.
Friday was the last day of the 2025 session.
This article was first published in Business Insurance.
