Highlight any text to annotate

# Summary The Black Lung Benefits Improvement Act of 2023 is a comprehensive reform of the federal program that provides benefits to coal miners with black lung disease (pneumoconiosis) and their families. The bill addresses long-standing problems including complex claim processes, inadequate legal representation, benefit erosion from inflation, and insufficient coal company financial accountability. The legislation makes several major changes to the claims process. It requires the Labor Department to provide free pulmonary medical evaluations to claimants, allows CT scans in addition to chest X-rays for diagnosis, and establishes a new payment program to cover attorneys' fees (up to $4,500 per claim) and medical expenses for claims taking longer than two years to resolve. The bill also allows miners whose cases were previously denied due to discredited physician opinions to refile claims, with back benefits owed from the original denial date. The bill updates benefit payment rates, starting at $9,627.60 annually in 2024 and thereafter automatically adjusting each year to keep pace with inflation through a Consumer Price Index formula. This reverses prior freezes that eroded benefits when federal employee pay was frozen. Additionally, the legislation strengthens enforcement against coal companies that self-insure their obligations by establishing stricter financial security requirements and increasing penalties for companies that fail to pay benefits from $1,000 to $25,000. The bill creates new protections against fraud by increasing penalties for false statements and authorizing disqualification of dishonest attorneys and medical experts. It also requires the Labor Department to develop a strategy within 90 days to reduce case backlogs before administrative law judges, targeting an average processing time of less than 12 months per claim.

Add a comment

Sign in to comment on this bill.

Annotate the text

Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.