_______________________________________________
HOUSE
BILL 1261
_______________________________________________
AS
AMENDED BY THE SENATE
Passed
Legislature - 1999 Regular Session
State of Washington 56th
Legislature 1999 Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/20/1999.
Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.
Modifying
motor vehicles of injured workers.
AN
ACT Relating to modifications of motor vehicles of injured workers; and
amending RCW 51.36.020.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
51.36.020 and 1982 c 63 s 12 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
When the injury to any worker is so serious as to require his or her being
taken from the place of injury to a place of treatment, his or her employer
shall, at the expense of the medical aid fund, or self-insurer, as the case may
be, furnish transportation to the nearest place of proper treatment.
(2)
Every worker whose injury results in the loss of one or more limbs or eyes
shall be provided with proper artificial substitutes and every worker, who
suffers an injury to an eye producing an error of refraction, shall be once
provided proper and properly equipped lenses to correct such error of
refraction and his or her disability rating shall be based upon the loss of
sight before correction.
(3)
Every worker whose accident results in damage to or destruction of an
artificial limb, eye, or tooth, shall have same repaired or replaced.
(4)
Every worker whose hearing aid or eyeglasses or lenses are damaged, destroyed,
or lost as a result of an industrial accident shall have the same restored or
replaced. The department or self-insurer shall be liable only for the cost of
restoring damaged hearing aids or eyeglasses to their condition at the time of
the accident.
(5)
All mechanical appliances necessary in the treatment of an injured worker, such
as braces, belts, casts, and crutches, shall be provided and all mechanical
appliances required as permanent equipment after treatment has been completed
shall continue to be provided or replaced without regard to the date of injury
or date treatment was completed, notwithstanding any other provision of law.
(6)
A worker, whose injury is of such short duration as to bring him or her within
the time limit provisions of RCW 51.32.090, shall nevertheless receive during
the omitted period medical, surgical, and hospital care and service and
transportation under the provisions of this chapter.
(7)
Whenever in the sole discretion of the supervisor it is reasonable and
necessary to provide residence modifications necessary to meet the needs and
requirements of the worker who has sustained catastrophic injury, the
department or self-insurer may be ordered to pay an amount not to exceed the
state's average annual wage for one year as determined under RCW 50.04.355, as
now existing or hereafter amended, toward the cost of such modifications or
construction. Such payment shall only be made for the construction or
modification of a residence in which the injured worker resides. Only one
residence of any worker may be modified or constructed under this subsection,
although the supervisor may order more than one payment for any one home, up to
the maximum amount permitted by this section.
(8)(a)
Whenever in the sole discretion of the supervisor it is reasonable and
necessary to modify a motor vehicle owned by a worker who has become an amputee
or becomes paralyzed because of an industrial injury, the supervisor may order
up to fifty percent of the state's average annual wage for one year, as
determined under RCW 50.04.355, ((as now existing or hereafter amended,))
to be paid by the department or self-insurer toward the costs thereof.
(b)
In the sole discretion of the supervisor after his or her review, the amount
paid under this subsection may be increased by no more than four thousand
dollars by written order of the supervisor.
(9) The benefits provided by subsections (7) and (8) of this
section are available to any otherwise eligible worker regardless of the date
of industrial injury.
