Legislation Would Allow Emergency Workers to Claim PTSD

Firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency medical technicians and dispatchers would be allowed to file claims for post-traumatic stress disorder without an underlying physical injury, under a bill introduced in the South Dakota House of Representatives. South Dakota prohibits coverage of so-called “mental-mental” claims by excluding from the definition of “injury” a condition arising exclusively from emotional, mental or nonphysical stress or stimuli. The law declares that a mental injury is compensable only if a compensable physical injury is and remains a...