Business Blindsided by Last-Minute Presumption Clause; 23%-35% of COVID Claims Denied

Ohio business groups are fighting back after Democrats slipped a last-minute presumption amendment into a bill that was designed to give employers some COVID-19 liability protection. “They made a mess of what was a very good bill,” said Roger Geiger, executive director of the Ohio chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. The rebuttable presumption, added to HB 606 with little debate and no advance notice, would provide workers' compensation benefits to only certain types of essential workers, something Geiger called “illogical.” “It s...