Report: Cities Name Price of PTSD Claims Unsustainable| Employees Compensation Information

Wednesday, August 18, 2021 | 0

A League of Minnesota Cities lobbyist said the cost of employee compensation and health insurance for police officers applying for disability retirement due to post-traumatic stress disorder are financially unsustainable, according to a report by the Minnesota Reformer.

The State Pension Association for Public Employees runs a plan for police and firefighters that allows workers who retire due to disability before the age of 55 to receive 60% of their salary tax-free. If they also receive workers’ compensation, they can earn as much as they would while at work, according to the report. Cities must also continue to offer health insurance up to the age of 65.

Legislature changed state law in 2019 to create a presumption that PTSD is work-related for disability claims. This was followed by a law from 2018 that founded the presumption that PTSD is work-related for employee compensation claims.

As a result, League of Minnesota Cities lobbyist Anne Finn said the public pension program approves almost all PTSD claims. The Reformer reports that the number of police officers and firefighters applying for a disability tripled in the past fiscal year, with 79% saying they couldn’t work because of PTSD.

Employees then use the disability assessment to support a work compensation claim.

“They say, ‘But PERA approved it, so why are you challenging it?'” She said.

Finn said the cost of the combined benefits and the need to replenish positions was unsustainable.

Meanwhile, data from Dan Greensweig, the manager of the league’s insurance trustee, shows the majority of claims for damages for PTSD are denied. According to the report, the league has rejected 86% of the PTSD-Comp claims filed since 1994 and 94% of the PTSD-Comp claims filed since January 2019.