Are benefits and/or compensation available to health care workers who are injured while providing emergency care?
Yes, the Public Safety Officers Benefit Program (PSOB), a federal program for public safety officers which covers non-emergency costs of reasonable and necessary medical treatment and compensation for lost employment income, secondary to any other coverage the individual may have, was expanded in October 2000 to include declared emergency and major disaster situations in which health care workers and emergency responders injured while performing official, hazardous duties related to such emergency or major disaster. Benefits may also include a lump sum death payment in circumstances in which the eligible individuals death results from a covered injury. The death benefit is also secondary to benefits paid or payable under the PSOB if the injured individual is already eligible for the PSOB. Source: CDC Smallpox/Benefits and Compensation for Smallpox Vaccine Injuries, 5/28/03.
