In another round in the battle between municipal insurers and sickened firefighters, an administrative law judge this month ruled against the Texas Municipal League's denial of a Mission, Texas, fireman's cancer claim.

Lt. Homer Salinas
(TSAFF photo)

Fire Lt. Homer Salinas is back on light duty after recovering from kidney cancer surgery, but he's also had to go through four denials of his cancer claims, despite a Texas law that presumes that cancer in firefighters is work-related, according to a news report and a bulletin from the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters.

“Homer Salinas has defeated TML (the Texas Municipal League) through four rounds of proceedings. His fight just shows that TML and city employers too often deny coverage of life-saving cancer treatment for firefighters with legitimate insurance claims," association President John Riddle said in a statement.

On Dec. 17, Administrative Law Judge Julio Gomez Jr. ordered the Municipal League's Intergovernmental Risk Pool to pay for Salinas' medical care. The order came after Gomez in September overturned the league's denial of the cancer claim.

Denial by municipal insurers has become a major issue in Texas. The state Division of Workers' Compensation reported this year that from 2012 to 2017, insurers denied 106 of 117 cancer claims by firefighters and emergency medical workers. 

Fire union officials have said it wasn't supposed to be that way after the 2005 cancer presumption law was passed by the Legislature. Insurers have inappropriately relied on the ambiguous wording in the law and on a report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the union has said.

The report suggests that only three types of cancer — testicular, prostate and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma — have been shown to have a statistically significant connection to firefighters.

“TML is spending more money fighting my claim than what my claim is actually worth,” Salinas told the local newspaper. “We need to make a change to protect those who protect us. Insurance companies have to abide by the law as provided by Chapter 607, but insurance companies are fighting this so much that most firefighters either die from their cancer or give up fighting TML.” 

Firefighters are expected to push for changes to the presumption law when the Legislature convenes Jan. 8.