Even with signs that society is beginning to turn the corner on the pandemic, the workers’ compensation sector will be grappling with presumption laws around COVID-19 infection for years. That is the topic of a recent article for Risk & Insurance magazine that quotes myMatrixx Chief Clinical Officer Phil Walls and other industry experts. With many states enacting guidelines for the presumption of workplace-related COVID-19 infections, a growing question is whether that will lead to presumption for other infectious and communicable diseases.
According to Walls, there is a high likelihood that there will be new presumptions for these diseases, but he stresses the importance of a cautious approach. In particular, there are difficulties with directly tracing infection of a virus to a particular incident. In contrast Walls made the comparison to a needlestick being related to an HIV infection, another area of presumption for workers’ compensation.