
March 1, 2024
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a commonly misunderstood mental illness that is increasingly a component of workers compensation claims, raising concerns over how to navigate and close the often complex claims.
Mental health experts say that adherence to guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD is essential when treating affected workers.
“The prognosis for well-treated PTSD is actually quite good,” said Les Kertay, Chattanooga, Tennessee-based behavioral health medical director for Genex Services, an Enlyte LLC company. “People tend to recover.”
State lawmakers have repeatedly sought to expand or introduce presumption laws that would make PTSD a compensable illness for some occupations allowing for more so-called mental-mental claims, or mental claims that result from a psychological event.
The push to expand workers comp into the mental health arena has mostly related to first responders, but there’s a growing interest in broadening eligibility for all workers.
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