West Virginia broadens who can diagnose first-responder PTSD and strikes the presumption's sunset
Enrolled HB 2797 lets certified mental health nurse practitioners and certified psychiatric physician assistants diagnose compensable PTSD for first responders, and removes the program's expiration date.
By the Work Comp Brief automated newsroomGrounded in wvlegislature.gov
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West Virginia has widened the path for first responders to claim workers' compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. The enrolled Committee Substitute for House Bill 2797, sponsored by Delegates Statler and Chiarelli, amends and reenacts Section 23-4-1f of the West Virginia Code. The enrolled text records that the bill passed on April 12, 2025, originated in the House of Delegates, and takes effect 90 days from passage — July 11, 2025.
The enacted measure does two distinct things, both stated in its caption. First, it adds providers who may diagnose first-responder PTSD: under the diagnosis provision in subsection (d), a compensable PTSD diagnosis may now be made by "a licensed psychiatrist, certified mental health nurse practitioner, or certified psychiatric physician assistant." Any diagnosing provider must, under the bill's definition of "licensed mental health provider," hold a master's degree or higher, hold a terminal license within their profession, and be qualified to treat PTSD. Second, the caption states the act is "removing sunset clause," eliminating the expiration date that had been attached to the state's first-responder PTSD coverage.
The statute keeps the structural limits that were already in place. PTSD is treated as a compensable occupational disease only where "the employer has elected to provide coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder as an occupational disease," and benefits remain "contingent upon the employer electing to provide coverage," whether through a workers' compensation carrier or a self-insurance program. The bill defines a covered "first responder" as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency medical technician, paramedic, and emergency dispatcher. It applies to diagnoses made on or after July 1, 2021, or the first day of the employer's next policy or self-insurance term for which the coverage has been elected, whichever is later, and sets a three-year window to file a claim from the date the diagnosing provider made the claimant aware of the diagnosis.
The enrolled text also preserves the existing guardrails on what cannot anchor a claim. A diagnosis under the section "may not include consideration of any layoff, termination, disciplinary action, or any similar personnel-related action taken in good faith by an employer." In its legislative findings, the Legislature states that PTSD "is an occupational hazard for first responders, similar to members of the military serving in combat," framing the coverage as recognition of an occupational risk rather than an ordinary mental-only claim, which the section otherwise declares non-compensable.
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