Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Dakota lawmakers are currently considering bills that would shield workers’ compensation insurers from reimbursing injured workers for using medicinal cannabis.
The Mississippi House of Representatives last week approved S.B. 2095, which would create a statewide cannabis program that explicitly exempts workers’ compensation insurers and self-insured employers from paying for or reimbursing anyone for the costs of using medicinal cannabis. The bill includes language stating that the intent of the act is not to affect or otherwise impact an employer’s right to deny or establish legal defenses to the payment of workers’ compensation benefits based on a positive drug test.
Nebraska lawmakers are considering Legislative Bill 1275, a bill that would also create a statewide medicinal cannabis program, and would shield insurers and employers from having to reimburse injured workers for costs associated with the medicinal use of cannabis.
The South Dakota Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted on January 21st, and the Senate voted on January 25th, to pass Senate Bill 17. The bill would amend statutory language that exempts workers’ compensation insurers and self-insured employers from reimbursing injured workers for costs associated with the medicinal use of cannabis.
Similarly, Senate Bill 158 in Kansas would create a medical cannabis program and includes language to explicitly exempt workers compensation insurers or self-insured employers from paying for the drug. The Bill would also declare compensation for workplace injuries “shall not be denied” when a worker who is a registered medical cannabis patient who was using the drug in compliance with the proposed law and did not have any occurrence of on-the-job impairment over the last two years. The Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs heard testimony from supporters and opponents last week.
In contrast, lawmakers in New Jersey are currently weighing a law that would explicitly require comp to cover cannabis in some circumstances.
The proposed Senate Bill 309, would explicitly require workers’ compensation insurers to pay for medical cannabis. The proposed bill would also require employers and insurers to reimburse injured workers’ for costs associated with medical use, if payments direct to cannabis dispensaries are not feasible. In 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that workers’ compensation insurers can be compelled to reimburse workers who use medicinal cannabis to treat injuries and illnesses.
The court noted that while reimbursement payments for the cost of the workers’ prescribed medical marijuana may not yet be common, but exempting workers’ comp insurance carriers from responsibility for workers’ medical marijuana costs would be “antithetical to the Legislature’s express findings in the Compensation Use Act. . . and the traditional broad, liberal application of New Jersey’s workers’ compensation scheme.”
