Palm Beach and Broward Police and Firefighters Need Heart Disease Benefits from Workers' Compensation
For many years, Florida law enforcement officers and firefighters have benefited from the "heart and lung bill" presumption in the Florida workers' compensation laws. Specifically, the law presumes that heart disease and hypertension are work related, if the injured party is a firefighter or law enforcement officer. This presumption makes it far easier for these law enforcement and firefighters to get the benefits that they deserve.
New medical evidence now supports the fact that police officers, who face extreme stress on a regular basis, are at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Many police officers are currently enrolled in the Buffalo CardioMetabolic-Occupational Police Stress ("BCOPS") Study. The project is being conducted by the University of Buffalo.
Many firefighters and police officers in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County have regularly received workers' compensation benefits, as a result of the "heart and lung bill" presumption. More recently, the benefit was expanded to include correction officers.
