While most County governments are familiar with the Heart & Lung Act, since the addition of sheriffs and deputy sheriffs as covered employees in 2007, the recent passing of Act 60 of 2023 is going to expand eligibility of these benefits.  A quick overview of the Heart & Lung Act is below.

What are Heart and Lung Benefits? 

Heart and Lung (H&L) benefits were first enacted on June 28, 1935, to provide for the payment of the salary, medical, and hospital expenses of certain employees of State and local government who are injured in the performance of their official duties. The Heart and Lung Act covers specified public employees engaged in police work, firefighting, or other jobs involving public safety (including sheriff & deputy sheriff). The act explains that whenever an eligible employee is temporarily injured in performing their job, that employee is entitled to receive full salary (100%) continuation. The employer is also responsible for paying all medical bills and expenses incurred because of the injury.

Oversight of the Benefits:

Each municipality is encouraged to create policies and procedures to address Heart & Lung claims. Each individual municipality should have its own process that includes guidelines for applying, accepting, and terminating Heart and Lung claims.  This process should include the creation of a Heart & Lung Hearing Board to handle all due process hearings. You may use the county commissioners, supervisors, civil service commissioners, the municipality’s solicitor, or a disinterested third party such as an arbitrator to sit on the hearing board.

Why Does It Matter?

The Heart and Lung benefits can have a significant impact on the cost of an injury to an eligible employee (beyond what would typically be paid to an injured worker under a traditional Workers’ Compensation claim) due to the municipalities requirement to pay 100% of the injured employees’ salary (vs typically 66.67% under Workers’ Compensation).

What Does The Passage Of Act 60 Of 2023 Mean For County Government?

There have been recent changes to the act that will potentially impact County governments who operate Correction facilities. On December 14, 2023, Governor Shapiro signed into law, what previously the General Assembly had approved as SB 429, sponsored by Sen. Mike Regan (R-York), which allows for the expansion of benefits under the Heart and Lung Act to county corrections and probation officers being eligible for Heart and Lung benefits. The bill was signed into law by the Governor as Act 60 of 2023.

VERY IMPORTANT – Counties will be permitted to choose whether they will expand the offering to such employees, HOWEVER, the choice to do so cannot be reversed in the future, regardless of changing economic circumstances, further expansion of Heart and Lung benefits or other factors.  So, Counties will have the choice to expand the offering but are not required to do so, but their decision will not be able to be altered in the future.

What Does My County Need To Do?

The Act does not go into effect until 120 days after the signing by Governor Shapiro which would be 4/14/2024, so Counties should be prepared to meet with their Board of Commissioners and Executive Administrative teams to discuss the impact on the county and decide to adopt the expansion of eligibility or not.  This decision will need to be communicated to all stakeholders of the County including the Legal Department, HR, Solicitors office, Board Members, Risk Management, Safety Department, Finance, Insurance Broker or Consultant, Unions, etc.

How will this change what we do?

The decision that the County makes will need to be discussed with your current Workers’ Compensation carrier or TPA (if the County is self-insured), as these benefits run parallel with the Worker’s Compensation benefits. Your WC Carrier or TPA, in turn, will coordinate the proper benefit levels being paid under the claim and will properly report and adjudicate the claim in accordance with all laws.

Estimated Financial impact?

The financial impact of this decision to include or exclude these employees under these benefits will range widely depending on your payroll and employee count that would now be eligible. Working with your insurance broker and TPA/WC Carrier to seek loss runs and claims data will provide a good start to estimating what the potential additional cost could be if these newly eligible employees are included in the H&L benefits.

If you have any questions regarding the above information, please contact Scott Bogdan at sbogdan@ehdinsurance.com.