Firefighter cancer presumption in Indiana
When a cancer is tied to something firefighters face at work, Indiana presumes it came from the job.
The law is Ind. Code § 5-10-15-9. Public employee disability benefits are what it covers.
Presumed means the law assumes your job caused the cancer, so your employer has to show it came from something else. Indiana's cancer law is separate from workers' comp, which is the insurance that pays medical bills and lost pay when work makes you sick.
Conditions under Indiana's law
- You must work full time for the state or a local government, so volunteers don't qualify.
- Your diagnosis came while you were still on the job, or no more than 60 months after you left it.
- For the five years before your diagnosis, you used no tobacco in any form.
- Medical treatment is needed for the cancer, or it leaves you fully or partly disabled.
- You don't hold a similar job elsewhere with the state or a local government.
Your employer can argue something else caused your cancer, but it must have solid evidence for that.
Questions about your diagnosis, your service record or your deadline go to the claims line: +1 833 853 0496
Cancers Indiana covers
A cancer counts if a known cancer-causing substance, listed by IARC or NIOSH, caused it and you risked contact with it at work.
Examples include cancers like:
- Bladder cancer
- Brain cancer
- Breast cancer
- Colon or rectal cancer
- Esophagus cancer
- Kidney cancer
- Leukemia
- Liver cancer
- Lung cancer
- Mesothelioma
- Multiple myeloma
- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
- Ovarian, cervical or uterine cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Skin cancer, melanoma included
- Stomach cancer
- Testicular cancer
- Throat or mouth cancer
- Thyroid cancer
In Indiana, how do you file a claim for cancer as a firefighter?
- Ask your department, or the board that runs its pension or benefits, how to apply for the public employee disability benefits. Mention Indiana's law (Ind. Code § 5-10-15-9) in your request. That board is the office that decides retirement and disability pay for your department.
- You can also file a workers' comp claim, which is a second claim with the Worker's Compensation Board of Indiana. Indiana's cancer law does not help with that one, so your doctor has to say in writing that your work caused the cancer.
- Collect your fire and exposure records, your diagnosis, your hire and service dates, and any physical exam results.
- Try to start soon, because time limits apply. Ask your department or the board how long you have to apply. A workers' comp claim has its own deadlines.
Look up a different cancer · See the states that name each cancer