Citations Affected: IC 36-8.
Synopsis: Insurance for volunteer EMTs. Requires a county,
municipality, or township that uses an ambulance service department
or association to purchase a policy of insurance to cover each volunteer
emergency medical technician (EMT) who is a member of the
department or association.
Effective: January 1, 2004.
January 13, 2003, read first time and referred to Committee on Local Government.
February 26, 2003, reported _ Do Pass. Recommitted to Committee on Ways and Means.
A BILL FOR AN ACT to amend the Indiana Code concerning labor
and industrial safety.
STEP THREE amount and round the quotient to the nearest
one-thousandth (0.001).
STEP FIVE: Multiply the costs of the insurance coverage for
the provider by the quotient determined under STEP FOUR,
rounded to the nearest dollar.
(c) A diminution of insurance benefits may not occur under this
section because of a change in the insurance carrier or a change as
to who actually procures the required insurance.
(d) Each unit that has a provider may procure an insurance
policy for the benefit of auxiliary groups whose members could be
injured while assisting the members in the performance of their
duties.
Sec. 7. (a) Each unit that has a provider may procure an
insurance policy or any other type of instrument that provides
retirement benefits as an incentive to members for continued
service.
(b) An insurance policy or other instrument containing any of
the provisions authorized by subsection (a) may not be considered
in the computation of nominal compensation for purposes of this
chapter.
(c) A member who becomes covered by an insurance policy or
other instrument containing any of the provisions authorized by
subsection (a) does not thereby become eligible for membership in
the public employees' retirement fund under IC 5-10.3.
Sec. 8. If a unit fails to provide the insurance for a member that
this chapter requires and a member suffers a loss of the type that
the insurance would have covered, the unit shall pay to that
member the same amount of money that the insurance would have
paid to the member.
Sec. 9. Each policy of insurance must provide for payment to a
member working for a provider for accidental injury caused by or
occurring in the course of the performance of the duties of a
member as follows:
(1) For total disability that prevents the member from
pursuing the member's usual vocation, the policy shall
provide a weekly indemnity of at least two hundred fifty
dollars ($250), up to a maximum of two hundred sixty (260)
weeks.
(2) For medical expenses, coverage for incurred expenses.
However, the policy may not have medical expense limits of
less than seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000).
Sec. 10. (a) The policy of insurance required by section 6 of this
chapter must provide for the payment of at least one hundred fifty
thousand dollars ($150,000) to the beneficiary, beneficiaries, or
estate of a member if the member dies from an injury while in the
performance of the member's duties as a volunteer emergency
medical technician or from a cardiac disease event proximately
caused within forty-eight (48) hours by or occurring while in the
performance of the member's duties as a volunteer emergency
medical technician.
(b) The policy of insurance must provide for the payment of at
least one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) to the member
if the member becomes totally and permanently disabled for a
continuous period of at least two hundred sixty (260) weeks as a
result of an injury occurring in the performance of the member's
duties as a volunteer emergency medical technician. An amount
paid to a member under section 9(1) of this chapter is a credit
against any benefits payable under this subsection.
(c) The policy of insurance must also provide for
indemnification to a provider of a member who becomes partially
and permanently disabled or impaired as a result of an injury
occurring in the performance of the member's duties.
(d) For purposes of this section, partial and permanent
disability or impairment shall be indemnified as a percentage
factor of a whole person.
Sec. 11. All expenses incurred for premiums of the insurance
required by this chapter shall be paid out of the general fund of the
unit in the same manner as other expenses in the unit are paid.