Bill 260.

Summary.

The bill proposes to amend Law No. 59 of November 28, 2005, as amended by Law No. 25 of April 19, 2018, which contains employment protection rules for people with chronic, involutive, or degenerative diseases that cause work disability. It would add three articles to that law concerning the Interdisciplinary Commission on Physical and Mental Disability (Comisión Interdisciplinaria de Discapacidad Física y Mental) and follow-up assessments of people who have received a Physical and Mental Certification.

The proposed Article 5-A would place the Interdisciplinary Commission on Physical and Mental Disability under the senior office of the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud). It identifies the commission as responsible for issuing the Physical and Mental Certification to people with chronic, involutive, or degenerative diseases that cause work disability. It would also give the commission permanent status and require its members to be officials of the Ministry of Health. These provisions address the commission’s institutional placement, its continuity, and the status of the people who serve on it.

The proposed Article 5-B would establish a rule for the commission’s operation: it must meet at least once a week, with three (3) or more of its members present. The provision therefore sets both a minimum meeting frequency and a minimum attendance requirement for meetings of the Interdisciplinary Commission on Physical and Mental Disability.

The proposed Article 5-C would require assessments after a Physical and Mental Certification has been issued. Each year, the commission must assess the health condition of people who have chronic, involutive, or degenerative diseases that cause incapacity for work and who have received that certification. For people with those diseases whose Physical and Mental Certification was issued by two specialist physicians, the bill requires reassessment every six months. The proposed provision thus distinguishes the assessment interval according to how the certification was issued.

Finally, the bill would repeal any provision contrary to it and would take effect upon promulgation. Its provisions concern the Ministry of Health and the Interdisciplinary Commission on Physical and Mental Disability. They could be of interest to people with the specified diseases, specialist physicians who issue certifications, and the labor and health sectors involved in protecting people with work disability or incapacity for work.