127th MAINE LEGISLATURE
		LD 125		LR 396(03)
	An Act Extending Workers' Compensation Benefits to Certain Employees of the Office of the State Fire Marshal Who Contract Cancer
	Fiscal Note for Bill as Engrossed with: C "A" (S-76)
	Committee: Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development
Fiscal Note
Potential current biennium cost increase - Worker's Compensation Management Fund Potential future biennium cost increase - General Fund Potential future biennium cost increase - Other Special Revenue Funds
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	Adding fire investigators and sergeants employed by the Office of the State Fire Marshall to the definition of a firefighter that may qualify for workers' compensation benefits under a rebuttable presumption contained in Title 39-A, §328-B may increase costs to the Workers' Compensation Management Fund within the Department of Administrative and Financial Services beginning in fiscal year 2015-16.  The impact to the Fund will depend on actual experience.
	According to the State's data warehouse, there are currently 14 filled and one vacant fire investigator, senior fire investigator and fire investigations sergeant positions within the Office of the State Fire Marshall.  Although the exact cost to the State related to lost time and medical costs will depend on actual experience, the Division of Workers' Compensation within the Bureau of Human Resourses estimates the annual cost in lost time benefits only to be approximately $38,602 per claim and a maximum cost for one fatality who has a minor child to be as high as $694,839 in lost time benefits alone.
	This provision may also increase General Fund and Other Special Revenue Funds costs to the Office of the Fire Marshall within the Department of Public Safety from increased workers' compensation premiums.  The State, as a self-insured program, charges each state agency a premium rate that is built into the cost associated with each position within an agency.  That rate is based on the actual claims experience of each agency and is averaged over a three-year period.  The future impact to the premium rate for the Office of the State Fire Marshall will be based on actual experience.