PHOENIX — Arizona firefighters will no longer have to fight insurance companies over a typo in state law.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law Monday what’s known as the “comma bill.”
Senate Bill 1215, sponsored by Senator Kevin Payne (R-District 27), clarifies Arizona law, which says certain cancers are presumed to be work-related for
firefighters and covered under workers’ compensation.
see previous coverage in the video player above
“They’re fighting cancer. they don’t need to be fighting insurance, too,” Payne said.
ABC15 was the first to report on this last December.
The problem centers on how the law lists adenocarcinoma as a covered cancer. The statute lacks a comma after the word “adenocarcinoma” and before the phrase “or mesothelioma of the respiratory tract.” ABC15 has reported that some insurance companies are denying claims, arguing that only adenocarcinoma of the respiratory tract is covered.
The bills clarify that adenocarcinoma is a stand-alone cancer covered under the state’s presumptive cancer law for firefighters, regardless of where it develops in a firefighter’s body.
Sun City firefighter Matt O'Reilly shared his story with ABC15 last year. He spent more than a year, fighting to get his cancer claim covered.
"It was pretty heartbreaking because here I am, like, trying to just recover from surgery,” he said.
He was not the only one.
Senator Payne said at least six different firefighters had to fight for their workers’ compensation under similar circumstances last year.
Dan Freiberg, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, said the change is long overdue.
The new law also includes a retroactive provision, meaning it will cover similar cancer cases that were denied based on the lack of a comma, dating back to 2021. That’s when the original legislation expanding firefighter cancer coverage went into effect.
Email ABC15 Reporter Anne Ryman at anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X.
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