Firefighter cancer presumption in South Dakota
A city fire pension in South Dakota may count a cancer that disables you as work-related. This does not affect how you prove a workers' comp claim.
The law here is S.D. Codified Laws § 9-16-3.3. City fire department disability pensions use it.
Workers' comp (workers' compensation) is the insurance that pays medical bills and part of your lost pay when work makes you sick. Line-of-duty benefits are paid when an illness or injury comes from your work as a firefighter.
Conditions under South Dakota's law
- You're totally or partly disabled by the cancer.
- When you joined, you passed a physical exam, and it found no trace of the cancer.
- A city fire pension system covers the fire department you serve in as an officer or member.
Call about your South Dakota claim
Questions about your diagnosis, your service record or your deadline go to the claims line: +1 833 853 0496
Cancers South Dakota counts
Every cancer counts, as long as it leaves you totally or partly disabled and the exam you took when joining showed no sign of it.
Among those cancers are:
- 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 South Dakota, how do you file a claim for firefighter cancer?
- Reach out to your department or its pension or benefit board for instructions on applying for a city fire disability pension, and cite the law (S.D. Codified Laws § 9-16-3.3). 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 Division of Labor and Management at the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation. South Dakota's cancer law does not help with that one, so your doctor has to say in writing that your work caused the cancer.
- Pull together your diagnosis, the dates you were hired and served, any results from physical exams, and your records of fires and exposures.
- 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.