COVID-19 Workers’ Compensation Presumptions: A Survey and Analysis of Their Indelible Impact

The concept of workers’ compensation has been around for more than a century. Its origins are rooted in providing protection for employees or workers injured in the course and scope of their employment. Those words and industry-specific terms – “in the course and scope of employment” – have been the subject of countless disputes between employer and employee when ascertaining who should receive indemnification for wage loss and medical expenses for job-related injuries and disease. The line between compensable and non-compensable workers’ compensation claims can be narrow. The discernment of these principles and qualifications has evolved in every state in our country over the last one-hundred years in many ways, shapes, and forms.

With the onset of COVID-19, a new discussion and public policy dynamic have emerged that the insurance industry has had to come to grips with over the spring and summer months of 2020 and beyond. The results of this unprecedented discussion and resulting activity may forever alter and shift the workers’ compensation paradigm in numerous ways. The intent of this paper is to explore the issues, the public policy activities, the resultant measures to address, and to briefly analyze the impacts that the hyper-reactive atmosphere the COVID-19 pandemic has created for the employer and insuring community.