Firefighter cancer presumption in Minnesota
When cancer is tied to what firefighters face on the job, Minnesota presumes the job caused it.
The law is Minn. Stat. § 176.011, subdivision 15. Workers' comp claims use it.
Presumed means the law assumes your job caused the cancer, so your employer has to show it came from something else. Workers' comp (workers' compensation) is the insurance that pays medical bills and part of your lost pay when work makes you sick.
Conditions under Minnesota's law
- Active duty with an organized fire department is required.
- Your cancer has to leave you unable to perform your department duties.
- It has to be a cancer that heat, radiation or a cancer-causing substance can cause, and the link must be reasonable.
- A pre-hire exam that found this cancer bars you from using it if you were hired after August 1, 1988, unless doctors later say it's gone.
Questions about your diagnosis, your service record or your deadline go to the claims line: +1 833 853 0496
Cancers Minnesota covers
If heat or radiation caused the cancer, it counts. It also counts when a cancer-causing substance did, as long as the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists that substance as known or suspected.
Among the cancers this includes are:
- Cancer of the bladder
- Cancer of the brain
- Cancer of the breast
- Cancer of the colon or rectum
- Cancer of the esophagus
- Cancer of the kidney
- Leukemia
- Cancer of the liver
- Cancer of the lung
- Mesothelioma
- A cancer called multiple myeloma
- Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
- Cancer of the ovary, cervix or uterus
- Cancer of the pancreas
- Cancer of the prostate
- Skin cancer, including melanoma
- Cancer of the stomach
- Cancer of the testicle
- Cancer of the throat or mouth
- Cancer of the thyroid
In Minnesota, how do you file a workers' comp claim for firefighter cancer?
- Put it in writing to your department: you have cancer and you believe the job caused it. Keep your own copy.
- Submit your claim through your employer's insurance provider or to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, and include the law name (Minn. Stat. § 176.011, subdivision 15) when you fill out the form.
- Collect your diagnosis, the dates you were hired and served, any results from your physical exam, and your records of fires and exposures.
- Start soon. Workers' comp claims have time limits for telling your employer and for filing, and some are short.