Florida’s Heart and Lung Bill, codified at Section 112.18, creates a legal presumption that firefighters, law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and correctional probation officers who develop tuberculosis, heart disease, or hypertension contracted those conditions on the job. Instead of making the first responder prove the work connection, the statute flips the burden: the condition is treated as a line-of-duty injury unless the employer rebuts it with competent medical evidence. That presumption opens the door to workers’ compensation medical care, disability income, and death benefits that would otherwise require a costly fight over causation.1Online Sunshine. Florida Code 112.18 – Firefighters and Law Enforcement or Correctional Officers; Special Provisions Relative to Disability
Who the Law Covers
Four categories of public employees qualify: firefighters, law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and correctional probation officers. Firefighters must work for a state, municipal, county, port authority, special tax district, or fire control district agency.1Online Sunshine. Florida Code 112.18 – Firefighters and Law Enforcement or Correctional Officers; Special Provisions Relative to Disability The other three roles are defined by cross-reference to Section 943.10.2Florida Senate. Florida Code 943.10 – Definitions
Law enforcement officers must be full-time employees of the state or a political subdivision, authorized to carry firearms and make arrests, and primarily responsible for crime prevention, detection, or enforcement. Certified supervisors and command staff count; support personnel do not. Correctional officers must work full time for the state, a political subdivision, or a private entity under government contract, with primary responsibility for the supervision and custody of inmates. Correctional probation officers must be full-time state employees responsible for the supervised custody and surveillance of inmates, probationers, or parolees.
The full-time requirement matters. Part-time officers, reserve deputies, administrative staff, and private security personnel are not covered. You must hold a qualifying role at the time of diagnosis for the presumption to apply.
Conditions Covered and How the Presumption Operates
The statute covers three medical conditions and no others: tuberculosis, heart disease, and hypertension. When a qualifying first responder develops any of them and it results in total or partial disability or death, the law presumes the condition was accidental and suffered in the line of duty.
In an ordinary workers’ compensation claim, the employee carries the full burden of proving the injury is work-related. The Heart and Lung Bill reverses that. Once the presumption attaches, the employer or its insurance carrier must produce competent evidence that the condition is not work-related. Without the presumption, proving that years of job stress produced hypertension or heart disease would require expensive expert testimony tying a specific work environment to the diagnosis. With it, that link is assumed.
One boundary catches people off guard. The presumption works inside the workers’ compensation system only. It does not extend to life insurance or private disability insurance policies unless the insurer and the employee specifically negotiated for that coverage.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 112.18 – Firefighters and Law Enforcement or Correctional Officers; Special Provisions Relative to Disability
The Clean Pre-Employment Physical Requirement
The presumption has a gatekeeper. Every qualifying employee must have passed a physical examination when entering service, and that exam must not have shown any evidence of tuberculosis, heart disease, or hypertension. If the initial physical noted elevated blood pressure or any sign of one of the three conditions, the presumption likely will not apply.
This is where claims most often break down. Agencies lose old medical files. An entry-level exam from twenty years ago may have recorded a borderline blood pressure reading nobody thought about at the time. For firefighters, the statute addresses the record-keeping problem directly: if the employing agency fails to maintain the pre-employment physical for at least five years after separation, the law presumes the employee met the clean-bill-of-health requirement.3Florida Senate. Florida Code 112.18 – Firefighters and Law Enforcement or Correctional Officers; Special Provisions Relative to Disability Firefighters who never received a pre-employment physical can use the medical examination required for certification under Section 633.412(5) as a substitute, provided that exam was also clean.
No equivalent record-keeping safety net exists for law enforcement officers, correctional officers, or correctional probation officers. If you are in one of those roles, locate your original pre-employment physical before filing.
How Employers Rebut the Presumption
The presumption is rebuttable. Carriers typically point to non-occupational risk factors: tobacco use, obesity, family medical history, diet, or sedentary habits outside work. The statute does not define “competent evidence,” and the exact standard has been shaped by litigation over the years.
For law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and correctional probation officers filing claims on or after July 1, 2010, the statute gives carriers an additional path. The presumption flips against the officer if they materially departed from a prescribed course of treatment from their personal physician and that departure demonstrably worsened the condition. The same applies when an officer who previously received compensation for one of the covered conditions files a new claim after failing to follow an authorized physician’s treatment plan.
“Prescribed course of treatment” means the specific medical actions and medications a physician documented for the condition claimed. When there is a dispute about whether the treatment plan was appropriate or whether the officer’s departure actually worsened the condition, an expert medical advisor decides.
Benefits You Can Receive
Because the Heart and Lung Bill channels claims through Florida’s workers’ compensation system under Chapter 440, the benefits are the same ones any injured worker receives. The presumption simply makes them far easier to secure.
Medical Care
The employer’s workers’ compensation carrier pays for all reasonable and medically necessary treatment for the covered condition. For heart disease or hypertension, that typically includes cardiologist visits, diagnostic testing, medications, surgical procedures, and cardiac rehabilitation. No copays or deductibles come out of your pocket.
Disability Income
Temporary total disability benefits pay 66.67 percent of your average weekly wage while you cannot work, for up to 104 weeks.4Online Sunshine. Florida Code 440.15 – Compensation for Disability For injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2026, the maximum weekly benefit is $1,358.5Florida Department of Financial Services. Maximum Workers Compensation Rate, Effective January 1, 2026
Once you reach maximum medical improvement or exhaust the 104-week cap, temporary benefits end and your permanent impairment is rated. Permanent impairment benefits pay 75 percent of your temporary total disability rate, with duration tied to your impairment rating. If the condition leaves you permanently and totally unable to work, you receive 66.67 percent of your average weekly wage for the duration of the disability.
Death Benefits
When the covered condition causes death, workers’ compensation death benefits are available to the surviving family under the same Chapter 440 framework, with the presumption establishing the work connection the family would otherwise have to prove.
Filing a Claim
The process has firm deadlines, and missing them can end an otherwise strong claim.
Give Written Notice Within 30 Days
You must tell your employer about the diagnosis within 30 days of the diagnosis itself or the date you first learned the condition was work-related. Late notice bars the claim unless you can show the employer wasn’t prejudiced by the delay, or the cause couldn’t be identified without a medical opinion and you gave notice within 30 days of receiving that opinion.6Online Sunshine. Florida Code 440.185 – Notice of Injury or Death; Reports; Penalties for Violations Put the notice in writing. A verbal conversation is hard to prove months later.
The Employer Reports to the Carrier
Your employer has seven days from learning of the condition to report it to its workers’ compensation carrier on Form DFS-F2-DWC-1, available from the Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation.7Florida Department of Financial Services. Forms Employers that miss the seven-day window face administrative fines of up to $500 per violation.
Build Your Documentation
- Your pre-employment physical, showing no evidence of tuberculosis, heart disease, or hypertension when you entered service.
- A formal diagnosis from a licensed physician identifying one of the three covered conditions, with clinical test results such as electrocardiograms, blood pressure logs, or imaging.
- Employment records confirming your dates of service, job classification, and certification status in a covered role at the time of diagnosis.
- Treatment records showing the course of care so far and how the condition affects your ability to perform your duties.
Expect carriers to scrutinize two things in particular: whether your pre-employment physical was truly clean, and whether non-occupational factors can explain the diagnosis. Keep a written log of every communication with the carrier and your employer. Disputes over the presumption often turn on documentation, and the gaps in your records become the carrier’s strongest argument.
The Two-Year Statute of Limitations
Separate from the 30-day notice rule, you must file a petition for benefits within two years of the date you knew or should have known the condition arose from your work.8Florida Senate. Florida Code 440.19 – Limitation of Time For Heart and Lung claims, this clock usually starts at diagnosis, because the presumption itself establishes the work connection.
The deadline can be extended. Any indemnity payment or medical treatment provided under the claim resets the limitations period for one additional year from the last payment or treatment. That tolling does not apply to disputes over compensability, the date of maximum medical improvement, or permanent impairment ratings. Miss the deadline entirely and your right to benefits is gone regardless of the medical evidence.
A Note on PTSD
The Heart and Lung Bill covers only tuberculosis, heart disease, and hypertension. First responders with job-related post-traumatic stress disorder have a separate path under Section 112.1815, which makes PTSD compensable as an occupational disease without a physical injury, but requires a psychiatric diagnosis tied to specific qualifying on-duty events and supported by clear and convincing medical evidence.9Online Sunshine. Florida Code 112.1815 – Firefighters; Law Enforcement Officers; Correctional Officers; Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics If you are dealing with both a cardiovascular condition and PTSD from job-related trauma, you may have claims under both statutes at once.