Provides that certain communications between a claimant's attorney or representative and an injured employee's treating provider or a claimant's medical consultant are not improper influence or an attempt to improperly influence.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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8323
IN SENATE
January 18, 2024
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Introduced by Sen. RAMOS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to communi-
cations between a claimant's attorney or representative and an injured
employee's treating provider or a claimant's medical consultant
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 6 of section 13-a of the work-
2 ers' compensation law, as amended by section 8 of part CC of chapter 55
3 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
4 (a) Any interference by any person with the selection by an injured
5 employee of an authorized physician to treat him, except when the
6 selection is made pursuant to article ten-A of this chapter, and the
7 improper influencing or attempt by any person improperly to influence
8 the medical opinion of any physician who has treated or examined an
9 injured employee, shall be a misdemeanor; provided, however, that it
10 shall not constitute interference or improper influence if, in the pres-
11 ence of such injured employee's physician, an employer, his carrier or
12 agent should recommend or provide information concerning rehabilitation
13 services or the availability thereof to an injured employee or his fami-
14 ly. It shall not constitute improper influence or an attempt to improp-
15 erly influence if a claimant's attorney or representative communicates,
16 verbally or in writing, with an injured employee's treating provider or
17 a claimant's medical consultant. Such communication shall not serve as a
18 basis to diminish or preclude the opinion of the treating provider or
19 claimant's consultant. It shall not be presumed that a claimant's attor-
20 ney or representative's communication with the injured employee's treat-
21 ing provider or claimant's medical consultant was an attempt to improp-
22 erly influence the treating provider or medical consultant.
23 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13516-01-3
