HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1400        FILED ON: 1/18/2023

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2594

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Joseph W. McGonagle, Jr.

_________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to the disability or death caused by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

_______________

PETITION OF:

 

Name:

District/Address:

Date Added:

Joseph W. McGonagle, Jr.

28th Middlesex

1/18/2023

Ryan M. Hamilton

15th Essex

1/31/2023

Gerard J. Cassidy

9th Plymouth

1/31/2023

Marc R. Pacheco

Third Bristol and Plymouth

1/31/2023

Jack Patrick Lewis

7th Middlesex

1/31/2023

Jessica Ann Giannino

16th Suffolk

1/31/2023

Brian W. Murray

10th Worcester

1/31/2023

Carol A. Doherty

3rd Bristol

1/31/2023

Steven George Xiarhos

5th Barnstable

1/31/2023

Josh S. Cutler

6th Plymouth

1/31/2023

James K. Hawkins

2nd Bristol

1/31/2023

Angelo J. Puppolo, Jr.

12th Hampden

1/31/2023

Peter Capano

11th Essex

1/31/2023

Susannah M. Whipps

2nd Franklin

1/31/2023

Steven Ultrino

33rd Middlesex

1/31/2023

Vanna Howard

17th Middlesex

1/31/2023

Sal N. DiDomenico

Middlesex and Suffolk

1/31/2023

Erika Uyterhoeven

27th Middlesex

2/1/2023

William C. Galvin

6th Norfolk

2/1/2023

Thomas P. Walsh

12th Essex

2/2/2023

Paul McMurtry

11th Norfolk

2/2/2023

Rodney M. Elliott

16th Middlesex

2/2/2023

Jon Santiago

9th Suffolk

2/6/2023

Hannah Kane

11th Worcester

2/9/2023

Christopher Hendricks

11th Bristol

2/9/2023

Michelle M. DuBois

10th Plymouth

2/14/2023

Colleen M. Garry

36th Middlesex

2/14/2023

Daniel Cahill

10th Essex

2/17/2023

Jonathan D. Zlotnik

2nd Worcester

3/2/2023

Marcus S. Vaughn

9th Norfolk

3/3/2023

Alyson M. Sullivan-Almeida

7th Plymouth

3/8/2023

Priscila S. Sousa

6th Middlesex

8/22/2023

Andres X. Vargas

3rd Essex

9/26/2023

Rita A. Mendes

11th Plymouth

11/6/2023


HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1400        FILED ON: 1/18/2023

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2594

By Representative McGonagle of Everett, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 2594) of Joseph W. McGonagle, Jr., and others relative to a post-traumatic stress disorder presumption for certain retirement benefits.  Public Service.

 

[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE HOUSE, NO. 2726 OF 2021-2022.]

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

_______________

In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court
(2023-2024)

_______________

 

An Act relative to the disability or death caused by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 32 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 94B the following section:-

Section 94C. (a) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:

“Post-traumatic stress disorder”, a disorder that meets the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress, specified by the American Psychiatric Association in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders, or most recently published edition.

“Mental health professional”, a person with professional training, experience and demonstrated competence in the treatment and diagnosis of mental conditions, who is certified or licensed to provide mental health care services and for whom diagnosis of mental conditions are within their scope of practice, including a physician, nurse with recognized psychiatric specialties, psychiatrist, psychologist, clinical social worker, mental health counselor or alcohol and drug abuse counselor.

(b) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary relative to the non-contributory or contributory retirement system, any condition of impairment of health caused by post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed by a mental health professional resulting in total or partial disability or death of: (1) a full-time uniformed member of a paid police department, paid fire department, paid municipal emergency medical service department, the police department of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the state police or the public works building police, (2) any employee in the department of correction or a county correctional facility whose regular or incidental duties require the care, supervision or custody of prisoners, criminally insane persons or defective delinquents, (3) any permanent crash crewmen, crash boatman, fire controlman or assistant fire controlman employed at the General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport, (4) the members of the 104th fighter wing fire department or (5) members of the Massachusetts military reservation fire department, shall if they successfully passed a physical examination on entry into said service, which examination failed to reveal any evidence of said condition, shall be presumed to have been suffered in the line of duty, unless it is shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the post-traumatic stress was caused by non-service connected risk factors or non-service connected exposure.

(c) Any person first diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder within 5 years of the last date on which said person actively served shall be eligible to apply for benefits pursuant to this section, and if granted, said benefits shall be payable as of the date on which the employee last received regular compensation.

(d) Post-traumatic stress disorder shall not be presumed to have been suffered in the line of duty of it results from any disciplinary action, work evaluation, job transfer, layoff, demotion, termination, resignation, retirement or similar bona fide personnel action taken in good faith by the employer.