NY State Senate Bill 2025-S4518

Senate Bill S4518

2025-2026 Legislative Session

Provides that certain communications between a claimant's attorney or representative and an injured employee's treating provider or a claimant's medical consultant are not improper influence

download bill text pdf

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Labor Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Feb 06, 2025	referred to labor

co-Sponsors

2025-S4518 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A5315
Current Committee:: Senate Labor
Law Section:: Workers' Compensation Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §13-a, Work Comp L
Versions Introduced in 2023-2024 Legislative Session:: S8323, A8957

2025-S4518 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Provides that certain communications between a claimant's attorney or representative and an injured employee's treating provider or a claimant's medical consultant are not improper influence or an attempt to improperly influence.

2025-S4518 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S4518

SPONSOR: RAMOS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to communi-
cations between a claimant's attorney or representative and an injured
employee's treating provider or a claimant's medical consultant

 
PURPOSE:

The purpose of this bill is to ensure that claimants' counsel and repre-
sentatives can communicate with their clients' providers/consultants,
without fear of having their provider's/consultant's opinion precluded.
This will also ensure that medical providers can prepare for, and testi-
fy, in a more informed and expeditious fashion, to better focus their
time on providing injured workers with medical care.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Amends the workers' compensation law by amending subdivision
6 of section 13-a to allow claimant attorneys or representatives to

communicate with claimants' medical providers.

Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

This bill aims to remove the undue limitations that the Workers' Compen-
sation Board has placed on claimants' counsel/representative's ability
to communicate with their client's treating medical providers or medical
consultants. The Board's policy regarding claimant communication with
providers extends well beyond the concern of improper influence set
forth in WCL.

The Board's policy prohibits claimants' counsel/representatives from
having any verbal communication with the treating provider (or claim-
ants' medical consultant),outside of the presence of the
carrier/carrier's representative. It calls for the diminishment or
complete preclusion of a claimant's medical opinion for any verbal
communication by claimant's counsel/representative outside the presence
of the carrier, no matter the nature of the communication.  It requires
every written communication by claimants' counsel/representative to a
treating provider (or claimant's medical consultant) to be copied to the
carrier, no matter the nature of the communication. It presumes that
contact by a claimant's attorney or representative, that does not
include the carrier or carrier's representative, was done with the
purpose of improperly influencing the treating provider or claimant's
medical consultant.  The Board's policy significantly hinders a claim-
ant's ability to investigate the opinion of the treating physician or
claimant's consultant, to properly determine the viability of a claim,
and to prepare for litigation. The Board's policy interferes with an
attorney's ethical obligations to zealously represent their client and
to only pursue claims that have merit.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2023-24: S8323 (Ramos) Passed the Senate / A8957 (Reyes) Referred to
Labor
 
FISCAL IMPACT:

TBD

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

2025-S4518 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4518
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             February 6, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sens.  RAMOS, JACKSON -- read twice and ordered printed,
   and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
 
 AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation  to  communi-
   cations between a claimant's attorney or representative and an injured
   employee's treating provider or a claimant's medical consultant

   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 6 of section 13-a of the work-
 ers' compensation law, as amended by section 8 of part CC of chapter  55
 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
   (a)  Any  interference  by any person with the selection by an injured
 employee  of  an  authorized  physician  to  treat  [him]  SUCH  INJURED
 EMPLOYEE, except when the selection is made pursuant to article ten-A of
 this  chapter,  and  the  improper  influencing or attempt by any person
 improperly to influence the medical opinion of  any  physician  who  has
 treated  or  examined  an  injured  employee,  shall  be  a misdemeanor;
 provided, however, that it shall not constitute interference or improper
 influence if, in the presence of such injured employee's  physician,  an
 employer,  [his]  SUCH INJURED EMPLOYEE'S carrier or agent should recom-
 mend or provide information concerning rehabilitation  services  or  the
 availability  thereof  to  an  injured  employee  or  [his] SUCH INJURED
 EMPLOYEE'S family.  IT SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE  IMPROPER  INFLUENCE  OR  AN
 ATTEMPT  TO  IMPROPERLY  INFLUENCE IF A CLAIMANT'S ATTORNEY OR REPRESEN-
 TATIVE COMMUNICATES, VERBALLY OR IN WRITING, WITH AN INJURED  EMPLOYEE'S
 TREATING PROVIDER OR A CLAIMANT'S MEDICAL CONSULTANT. SUCH COMMUNICATION
 SHALL  NOT  SERVE  AS A BASIS TO DIMINISH OR PRECLUDE THE OPINION OF THE
 TREATING PROVIDER OR CLAIMANT'S CONSULTANT. IT  SHALL  NOT  BE  PRESUMED
 THAT  A  CLAIMANT'S  ATTORNEY OR REPRESENTATIVE'S COMMUNICATION WITH THE
 INJURED EMPLOYEE'S TREATING PROVIDER OR  CLAIMANT'S  MEDICAL  CONSULTANT
 WAS  AN ATTEMPT TO IMPROPERLY INFLUENCE THE TREATING PROVIDER OR MEDICAL
 CONSULTANT.
   § 2.  This act shall take effect immediately.
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.

                                                            LBD08154-01-5

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Senate Bill S4518

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Sponsored By

Jessica Ramos