The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Washington (Department of Labor and Industries, the State workers'-compensation fund) · Washington
- Level
- Sector regulator
- Authority
- RCW Title 51
- Issued
- 2020-03-05 Mar. 5, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-03-05 (policy); page as captured 2020-05-26 (read as 2020-03-05)
- In force
- Mar. 5, 2020 to Mar. 31, 2021
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q1
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesOther
- Addressees
- State Fund employers and self-insured employers of health-care providers and first responders; treating providers filing claims
- Functions reached
- HR and WF for hospitals, clinics, EMS and public-safety employers (quarantine time-loss claims allowed)
- IC exposure documentation
- OP State Fund premium consequences
- Collection
- State utilities, housing and agriculture agencies AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG
Operative words
Under certain circumstances, claims from health care providers and first responders involving COVID-19 may be allowed. Other claims that meet certain criteria for exposure will be considered on a case-by-case basis. For allowed claims, time-loss payments for lost wages during a quarantine period may be available for up to 14 days.... Appropriate, medically required testing/surveillance would also be covered. This is a time-limited benefit, and no benefits would be paid after the worker tests negative for COVID-19 or the quarantine period has ended, unless the worker develops the disease.... [Criteria:] Was there an increased risk or greater likelihood of contracting the condition due to the worker's occupation (such as a first responder or health care worker)? If not for their job, would the worker have been exposed to the virus or contracted the condition? Can the worker identify a specific source or event during the performance of his or her employment that resulted in exposure to the new coronavirus...?... the Industrial Insurance Act allows the insurer to pay for testing before someone is ill when there's been a documented, work-related exposure.
Enforcement
Department adjudication under RCW Title 51; State Fund premiums and self-insurer obligations
Notes
A statement of the State Fund's own claims policy, not an order; included because Washington's exclusive State fund is the workers'-compensation insurer of last resort for nearly every Washington employer and its policy governed the treatment of quarantine absences from March 2020.
Retrieval noteRendered from the May 26, 2020 Wayback capture (contemporaneous text); the live page now describes the 2021 statutory presumptions and the April 10, 2023 end of the federal emergency.