342.1240 Legislative findings and declaration of intent regarding the
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/ky/342-1240A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Kentucky coal workers' pneumoconiosis fund.
(1)The General Assembly declares:
(a)The Kentucky coal workers' pneumoconiosis fund was created in 1996 for
the purpose of placing the financial responsibility for liabilities incurred as
a result of workers' compensation awards for coal workers'
pneumoconiosis on the employers engaged in the severance and
processing of coal through assessments placed on workers'
compensation premiums and self-insured employers and severed coal.
These assessments have been used to pay fifty percent (50%) of
indemnity benefits of a coal workers' pneumoconiosis claim. However, the
combination of the severe downturn in the amount of coal being severed
in Kentucky, the drastic reduction in the number of coal employers and
employees, and the significant increase in coal workers' pneumoconiosis
claims being filed have had a severe negative impact on the Kentucky
coal workers' pneumoconiosis fund.
(b)For calendar year 2017, the Kentucky Workers' Compensation Funding
Commission, which is required to assess all employers engaged in the
severance and processing of coal at a rate that would fully fund and
prefund all claim liabilities and administrative expenses through
December 31 of the following year, assessed coal employers forty-nine
and one-half percent (49.5%) on employers' workers' compensation
insurance premiums and assessed forty-one and seventy-four hundredths
cents ($0.4174) per ton of severed coal.
(c)The Kentucky coal workers' pneumoconiosis fund will not have adequate
funding without burdensome assessments on coal employers in order to
meet claim liabilities and administrative expenses in the upcoming years.
(2)Therefore, it is the intent of the General Assembly to close the Kentucky coal
workers' pneumoconiosis fund on July 1, 2017, to any coal workers'
pneumoconiosis claims filed after June 30, 2017, and have the assets and
liabilities of the Kentucky coal workers' pneumoconiosis fund transferred
through a loss portfolio transfer agreement to the Kentucky Employers' Mutual
Insurance Authority, which is a nonprofit, independent, self-supporting de jure
municipal corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth.