Government risk managers know that insurance premiums related to policing are on the rise. In recent years, law enforcement insurance rates increased approximately 10-30%.ⁱ Experts cite several reasons for the jump (law enforcement liability is a major driver as discussed in an article included in a recent edition of Trends, Topics & Views); however, recent increases in the types and numbers of laws pertaining to law enforcement workers’ compensation coverage, along with other factors causing the filing of more workers’ compensation claims, are giving rise to increases in the cost of this coverage. Because law enforcement-related insurance coverage is the most substantial contributor to overall insurance costs for public entities, awareness about the causes of workers’ compensation claim increases is critical to addressing this risk.

The leading factors giving rise to more workers’ compensation claims being filed by law enforcement personnel are:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder, both as to severity and frequency;
• COVID-19 presumptive compensability laws being enacted nationwide; and
• Increasing law enforcement on-the-job violence.
   

PTSD:

The increased incidence of PTSD injuries in the workplace and the resultant filing of claims seeking workers’ compensation coverage for those injuries have attracted the attention of workers compensation program stakeholders. Sadly, number of mass shootings in this country is sharply increasing. More and more, EMT’s and law enforcement professionals who are charged with responding to these types of violent incidents are filing workers’ compensation claims for PTSD injuries arising from their work. Historically, the handling of these types of claims differ across jurisdictions and in many cases claims were denied. Consequently, in many states, legislative changes to state workers’ compensation laws addressing these injuries have been enacted which create an evidentiary presumption in favor of compensation for law enforcement PTSD injuries. Today there is growing momentum nationwide in favor of these laws.

Under many state laws prior to these legislative changes, mental-mental claimants (mental injury without a physical injury) were denied compensation or were only covered on a very limited basis and job stress was never sufficient to give rise to a compensable injury or disability. This began to change in 2017, as states, such as Colorado, changed their laws. Before the 2017 change, Colorado law allowed workers’ compensation coverage for mental-mental claims but excepted claims when the trauma was a result of events that could occur over the course of a worker’s usual day. The exception operated to allow mental-mental claims for all workers except emergency responders including law enforcement because they encounter trauma in their day-to-day work. The new law changed this by providing that any worker who is violently attacked or witnesses a violent attack is covered under workers’ compensation if diagnosed with PTSD by a licensed psychiatrist. ⁱⁱ

That same year, Vermont passed workers’ compensation law reform. Previously, a claimant had to demonstrate that he suffered stress to a greater degree that others similarly situated and that his PTSD injury was connected to a physical on the job injury to have a compensable claim. The amendment gave first responders a legal presumption that the PTSD injury was incurred during service in the line of duty unless there is proof by a preponderance of the evidence overcoming the presumption and establishing the PTSD was caused by a non-service exposure.ⁱⁱⁱ

What is clear from developments in this area since 2017, is that more and more states now recognize mental-mental PTSD claims as compensable, and a significant number of states have created legal presumptions in favor of coverage for law enforcement and EMT’s who encounter violent situations as a regular part of their jobs. This has led to a crisis in workers’ compensation coverage in some states. For example, in Minnesota, in 2013, the workers’ compensation law was changed to allow mental health injuries to be covered as compensable without evidence of a physical cause. In 2018, that law was changed again to create a legal presumption that PTSD for public safety employees was work related unless the evidence showed that it came from other causes. As a result, the number of workers’ compensation PTSD claims “has spiked” according to the Anne Finn, the intergovernmental relations director for the Minnesota League of Cities.^iv

While these costs are rising nationwide, no other state appears to have experienced an impact as dramatic as Minnesota, in part because it was the epicenter of police brutality protests against law enforcement after the murder of George Lloyd by law enforcement there in 2020. The League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust reports that currently public safety PTSD is the single largest driver of increased workers’ compensation costs across all job classifications in the state. By April 1 of 2023, there were 393 PTSD claims filed with the Trust that year with $45 million in total costs incurred. 84% of these claims came from police, 14% from fire and 2% from EMT’s.^v

The city of Minneapolis alone may pay as much $34 million in workers’ compensation claims filed by law enforcement officers since Mr. Floyd’s death, with average per claim settlements of $169,000. As a result, workers’ compensation premiums have increased in the city by more than 66% since 2016, costing the city’s self-insurance fund $11.7 million. In total, the number of claims in the city have increased by 69% from 2019 to 2020. In most of the cases, law enforcement employees filing workers’ compensation claims have left their jobs due to disability, specifically PTSD.^vi