Committee advances technical fix to firefighters’ cancer presumption to prevent claim denials

The House Committee on Public Safety and Law Enforcement on Wednesday recommended due pass for House Bill 2231, a technical amendment that clarifies the list of cancers that may qualify a peace officer, firefighter or fire investigator for an occupational-disease presumption under Arizona workers' compensation law.

Representative Blackman told the committee the bill updates medical language so the law "reflects that today and our medical language" and does not expand or remove benefits. Mike Gardner of Professional Firefighters of Arizona described the measure as "the simplest bill we've asked you to decide today, maybe all session, but it's also critical." He said the statute contains a punctuation error — a missing comma — that had been used by insurers to deny at least one claim for a Sun City firefighter.

Gardner explained the presumption remains rebuttable: insurers may still contest claims on other grounds (for example, prior smoking or another job), but the bill removes a drafting ambiguity that attorneys and carriers had exploited. He pointed the committee to the draft language (noting the comma placement on page 2 of the bill, cited in testimony as page 20, line 26 of the circulated draft) and said the intent is to prevent future denials based on typographical or punctuation errors.

Committee members on both sides of the aisle expressed support for fixing drafting errors to avoid years of litigation and claim denials. Several members gave brief explanations of their votes, including remarks in favor of good legislative drafting. The committee gave HB 2231 a due-pass recommendation by a recorded vote of 14 ayes, 0 nays and 1 absent.

Next steps: HB 2231 will move from committee to the full House calendar for further consideration.