With Law Expiring, Agency Adopts Emergency Presumption Rule for First Responders

With a COVID-19 presumption law and a governor's order set to expire in the next few weeks but the pandemic still in full bloom, Missouri regulators have come up with a temporary solution. The Missouri Division of Workers' Compensation this week published an emergency rule decreeing that if a first responder contracts COVID-19, the only evidence needed to show that the contagion was work-related is a statement from the employer. “This emergency rule directs that an affirmation from the employer of a first responder that the first responder’s duties were suc...