Firefighter cancer presumption in Texas
After 5 years of service, Texas presumes 9 cancers are job-related.
The law is Tex. Gov't Code § 607.055. It applies to workers' comp and to other job benefits, pensions included.
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 Texas's law
- Your service lasted 5 years or more.
- Volunteers get coverage while they serve actively. Active service means showing up for at least 40% of the drills and answering 25% of calls during on-call time.
- You need to have regularly worked on scene at fires, or at events where a release of radiation or cancer-causing substances was documented.
- Total or partial disability must have resulted from the cancer.
- An earlier physical exam needs to have shown no sign of cancer. The cancer must then be found before your service ends.
- When your cancer is one that tobacco is known to cause, you and your spouse must have been non-smokers during the marriage.
Your employer may still claim that something besides your work was the main cause.
Call about your Texas claim
Questions about your diagnosis, your service record or your deadline go to the claims line: +1 833 853 0496
Cancers Texas covers
| Cancer | Covered in Texas? |
|---|---|
| Brain cancer | Yes |
| Colon or rectal cancer | Yes |
| Multiple myeloma | Yes |
| Non-Hodgkin lymphoma | Yes |
| Prostate cancer | Yes |
| Skin cancer, melanoma included | Yes |
| Stomach cancer | Yes |
| Testicular cancer | Yes |
| Cancer of the kidneyThe list includes only renal cell carcinoma, the kind of kidney cancer that is most common | Partly |
| Bladder cancer | Not named |
| Breast cancer | Not named |
| Esophagus cancer | Not named |
| Leukemia | Not named |
| Liver cancer | Not named |
| Lung cancer | Not named |
| Mesothelioma | Not named |
| Ovarian, cervical or uterine cancer | Not named |
| Pancreatic cancer | Not named |
| Throat or mouth cancer | Not named |
| Thyroid cancer | Not named |
A cancer showing "Not named" can still be part of a workers' comp claim. A doctor must tie it to your job, though.
How do you file a workers' comp cancer claim as a firefighter in Texas?
- Put it in writing to your department that you have cancer and that you believe the job is the cause. Save a copy for yourself.
- File with the Division of Workers' Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance or your employer's insurer, and on the form name Texas's law (Tex. Gov't Code § 607.055).
- Collect your diagnosis, the dates you were hired and served, any physical exam results, plus your fire and exposure records.
- Start soon. Workers' comp claims have time limits for telling your employer and for filing, and some are short.