Sec. 9. (a) As used in this chapter, “employer” includes the state and any political subdivision, any municipal corporation within the state, any individual or the legal representative of a deceased individual, firm, association, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, or corporation or the receiver or trustee of the same, using the services of another for pay. A corporation, limited liability company, or limited liability partnership that controls the activities of another corporation, limited liability company, or limited liability partnership, or a corporation and a limited liability company or a corporation and a limited liability partnership that are commonly owned entities, or the controlled corporation, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, or commonly owned entities, and a parent corporation and its subsidiaries shall each be considered joint employers of the corporation’s, the controlled corporation’s, the limited liability company’s, the limited liability partnership’s, the commonly owned entities’, the parent’s, or the subsidiaries’ employees for purposes of sections 6 and 33 of this chapter. Both a lessor and a lessee of employees shall each be considered joint employers of the employees provided by the lessor to the lessee for purposes of sections 6 and 33 of this chapter. The term also includes an employer that provides on-the-job training under the federal School to Work Opportunities Act (20 U.S.C. § 6101 et seq.) to the extent set forth under section 2.5 of this chapter. If the employer is insured, the term includes the employer’s insurer so far as applicable. However, the inclusion of an employer’s insurer within this definition does not allow an employer’s insurer to avoid payment for services rendered to an employee with the approval of the employer. The term does not include a nonprofit corporation that is recognized as tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (as defined in IC 6-3-1-11(a)) to the extent the corporation enters into an independent contractor agreement with a person for the performance of youth coaching services on a part-time basis.

     (b) As used in this chapter, “employee” means every person, including a minor, in the service of another, under any contract of hire or apprenticeship written or implied, except one whose employment is both casual and not in the usual course of the trade, business, occupation, or profession of the employer. For purposes of this chapter the following apply:

(1) Any reference to an employee who has suffered disablement, when the employee is dead, also includes the employee’s legal representative, dependents, and other persons to whom compensation may be payable.

(2) An owner of a sole proprietorship may elect to include the owner as an employee under this chapter if the owner is actually engaged in the proprietorship business. If the owner makes this election, the owner must serve upon the owner’s insurance carrier and upon the board written notice of the election. No owner of a sole proprietorship may be considered an employee under this chapter unless the notice has been received. If the owner of a sole proprietorship:

(A) is an independent contractor in the construction trades and does not make the election provided under this subdivision, the owner must obtain a certificate of exemption under section 34.5 of this chapter; or

(B) is an independent contractor and does not make the election provided under this subdivision, the owner may obtain a certificate of exemption under section 34.5 of this chapter.

(3) A partner in a partnership may elect to include the partner as an employee under this chapter if the partner is actually engaged in the partnership business. If a partner makes this election, the partner must serve upon the partner’s insurance carrier and upon the board written notice of the election. No partner may be considered an employee under this chapter until the notice has been received. If a partner in a partnership:

(A) is an independent contractor in the construction trades and does not make the election provided under this subdivision, the partner must obtain a certificate of exemption under section 34.5 of this chapter; or

(B) is an independent contractor and does not make the election provided under this subdivision, the partner may obtain a certificate of exemption under section 34.5 of this chapter.

(4) Real estate professionals are not employees under this chapter if:

(A) they are licensed real estate agents;

(B) substantially all their remuneration is directly related to sales volume and not the number of hours worked; and

(C) they have written agreements with real estate brokers stating that they are not to be treated as employees for tax purposes.

(5) A person is an independent contractor in the construction trades and not an employee under this chapter if the person is an independent contractor under the guidelines of the United States Internal Revenue Service.

(6) An owner-operator that provides a motor vehicle and the services of a driver under a written contract that is subject to IC 8-2.1-24-23, 45 IAC 16-1-13, or 49 C.F.R. § part 376, to a motor carrier is not an employee of the motor carrier for purposes of this chapter. The owner-operator may elect to be covered and have the owner-operator’s drivers covered under a worker’s compensation insurance policy or authorized self-insurance that insures the motor carrier if the owner-operator pays the premiums as requested by the motor carrier. An election by an owner-operator under this subdivision does not terminate the independent contractor status of the owner-operator for any purpose other than the purpose of this subdivision.

(7) An unpaid participant under the federal School to Work Opportunities Act (20 U.S.C. § 6101 et seq.) is an employee to the extent set forth under section 2.5 of this chapter.

(8) A person who enters into an independent contractor agreement with a nonprofit corporation that is recognized as tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (as defined in IC 6-3-1-11(a)) to perform youth coaching services on a part-time basis is not an employee for purposes of this chapter.

(9) An officer of a corporation who is an employee of the corporation under this chapter may elect not to be an employee of the corporation under this chapter. An officer of a corporation who is also an owner of any interest in the corporation may elect not to be an employee of the corporation under this chapter. If an officer makes this election, the officer must serve written notice of the election on the corporation’s insurance carrier and the board. An officer of a corporation may not be considered to be excluded as an employee under this chapter until the notice is received by the insurance carrier and the board.

(10) An individual who is not an employee of the state or a political subdivision is considered to be a temporary employee of the state for purposes of this chapter while serving as a member of a mobile support unit on duty for training, an exercise, or a response, as set forth in IC 10-14-3-19(c)(2)(B).

     (c) As used in this chapter, “minor” means an individual who has not reached seventeen (17) years of age. A minor employee shall be considered as being of full age for all purposes of this chapter. However, if the employee is a minor who, at the time of the last exposure, is employed, required, suffered, or permitted to work in violation of the employment of minors laws of this state, the amount of compensation and death benefits, as provided in this chapter, shall be double the amount which would otherwise be recoverable. The insurance carrier shall be liable on its policy for one-half (1/2) of the compensation or benefits that may be payable on account of the disability or death of the minor, and the employer shall be wholly liable for the other one-half (1/2) of the compensation or benefits. If the employee is a minor who is not less than sixteen (16) years of age and who has not reached seventeen (17) years of age, and who at the time of the last exposure is employed, suffered, or permitted to work at any occupation which is not prohibited by law, the provisions of this subsection prescribing double the amount otherwise recoverable do not apply. The rights and remedies granted to a minor under this chapter on account of disease shall exclude all rights and remedies of the minor, the minor’s parents, the minor’s personal representatives, dependents, or next of kin at common law, statutory or otherwise, on account of any disease.

     (d) This chapter does not apply to casual laborers as defined in subsection (b), nor to farm or agricultural employees, nor to household employees, nor to railroad employees engaged in train service as engineers, firemen, conductors, brakemen, flagmen, baggagemen, or foremen in charge of yard engines and helpers assigned thereto, nor to their employers with respect to these employees. Also, this chapter does not apply to employees or their employers with respect to employments in which the laws of the United States provide for compensation or liability for injury to the health, disability, or death by reason of diseases suffered by these employees.

     (e) As used in this chapter, “disablement” means the event of becoming disabled from earning full wages at the work in which the employee was engaged when last exposed to the hazards of the occupational disease by the employer from whom the employee claims compensation or equal wages in other suitable employment, and “disability” means the state of being so incapacitated.

     (f) For the purposes of this chapter, no compensation shall be payable for or on account of any occupational diseases unless disablement, as defined in subsection (e), occurs within two (2) years after the last day of the last exposure to the hazards of the disease except for the following:

(1) In all cases of occupational diseases caused by the inhalation of silica dust or coal dust, no compensation shall be payable unless disablement, as defined in subsection (e), occurs within three (3) years after the last day of the last exposure to the hazards of the disease.

(2) In all cases of occupational disease caused by the exposure to radiation, no compensation shall be payable unless disablement, as defined in subsection (e), occurs within two (2) years from the date on which the employee had knowledge of the nature of the employee’s occupational disease or, by exercise of reasonable diligence, should have known of the existence of such disease and its causal relationship to the employee’s employment.

(3) In all cases of occupational diseases caused by the inhalation of asbestos dust, no compensation shall be payable unless disablement, as defined in subsection (e), occurs within three (3) years after the last day of the last exposure to the hazards of the disease if the last day of the last exposure was before July 1, 1985.

(4) In all cases of occupational disease caused by the inhalation of asbestos dust in which the last date of the last exposure occurs on or after July 1, 1985, and before July 1, 1988, no compensation shall be payable unless disablement, as defined in subsection (e), occurs within twenty (20) years after the last day of the last exposure.

(5) In all cases of occupational disease caused by the inhalation of asbestos dust in which the last date of the last exposure occurs on or after July 1, 1988, no compensation shall be payable unless disablement (as defined in subsection (e)) occurs within thirty-five (35) years after the last day of the last exposure.

     (g) For the purposes of this chapter, no compensation shall be payable for or on account of death resulting from any occupational disease unless death occurs within two (2) years after the date of disablement. However, this subsection does not bar compensation for death:

(1) where death occurs during the pendency of a claim filed by an employee within two (2) years after the date of disablement and which claim has not resulted in a decision or has resulted in a decision which is in process of review or appeal; or

(2) where, by agreement filed or decision rendered, a compensable period of disability has been fixed and death occurs within two (2) years after the end of such fixed period, but in no event later than three hundred (300) weeks after the date of disablement.

     (h) As used in this chapter, “billing review service” refers to a person or an entity that reviews a medical service provider‘s bills or statements for the purpose of determining pecuniary liability. The term includes an employer’s worker’s compensation insurance carrier if the insurance carrier performs such a review.

     (i) As used in this chapter, “billing review standard” means the data used by a billing review service to determine pecuniary liability.

     (j) As used in this chapter, “community” means a geographic service area based on ZIP code districts defined by the United States Postal Service according to the following groupings:

(1) The geographic service area served by ZIP codes with the first three (3) digits 463 and 464.

(2) The geographic service area served by ZIP codes with the first three (3) digits 465 and 466.

(3) The geographic service area served by ZIP codes with the first three (3) digits 467 and 468.

(4) The geographic service area served by ZIP codes with the first three (3) digits 469 and 479.

(5) The geographic service area served by ZIP codes with the first three (3) digits 460, 461 (except 46107), and 473.

(6) The geographic service area served by the 46107 ZIP code and ZIP codes with the first three (3) digits 462.

(7) The geographic service area served by ZIP codes with the first three (3) digits 470, 471, 472, 474, and 478.

(8) The geographic service area served by ZIP codes with the first three (3) digits 475, 476, and 477.

     (k) As used in this chapter, “medical service provider” refers to a person or an entity that provides services or products to an employee under this chapter. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the term includes a medical service facility.

     (l) As used in this chapter, “medical service facility” means any of the following that provides a service or product under this chapter and uses the CMS 1450 (UB-04) form or the CMS 1500 (HCFA-1500) form for Medicare reimbursement:

(1) An ambulatory outpatient surgical center (as defined in IC 16-18-2-14).

(2) A hospital (as defined in IC 16-18-2-179).

(3) A hospital based health facility (as defined in IC 16-18-2-180).

(4) A medical center (as defined in IC 16-18-2-223.4).

     (m) As used in this chapter, “pecuniary liability” means the responsibility of an employer or the employer’s insurance carrier for the payment of the charges for each specific service or product for human medical treatment provided under this chapter as follows:

(1) This subdivision applies before July 1, 2014, to all medical service providers, and after June 30, 2014, to a medical service provider that is not a medical service facility. Payment of the charges in a defined community, equal to or less than the charges made by medical service providers at the eightieth percentile in the same community for like services or products.

(2) Payment of the charges in a reasonable amount, which is established by payment of one (1) of the following:

(A) The amount negotiated at any time between the medical service facility and any of the following, if an amount has been negotiated:

(i) The employer.

(ii) The employer’s insurance carrier.

(iii) A billing review service on behalf of a person described in item (i) or (ii).

(iv) A direct provider network that has contracted with a person described in item (i) or (ii).

(B) Two hundred percent (200%) of the amount that would be paid to the medical service facility on the same date for the same service or product under the medical service facility’s Medicare reimbursement rate, if, after conducting the negotiations described in clause (A), an agreement has not been reached.

     (n) “Service or product” or “services and products” refers to medical, hospital, surgical, or nursing service, treatment, and supplies provided under this chapter.

Formerly: Acts 1937, c.69, s.5; Acts 1955, c.131, s.1; Acts 1955, c.195, s.1; Acts 1961, c.240, s.1; Acts 1963, c.48, s.16; Acts 1969, c.101, s.1; Acts 1974, P.L.109, SEC.3. As amended by Acts 1979, P.L.228, SEC.2; P.L.224-1985, SEC.1; P.L.95-1988, SEC.12; P.L.75-1993, SEC.5; P.L.8-1993, SEC.284; P.L.1-1994, SEC.111; P.L.110-1995, SEC.34; P.L.216-1995, SEC.5; P.L.2-1996, SEC.266; P.L.258-1997(ss), SEC.13; P.L.235-1999, SEC.7; P.L.31-2000, SEC.7; P.L.202-2001, SEC.8; P.L.201-2005, SEC.7; P.L.1-2009, SEC.127; P.L.180-2009, SEC.2; P.L.42-2011, SEC.38; P.L.168-2011, SEC.12; P.L.6-2012, SEC.150; P.L.71-2013, SEC.11; P.L.275-2013, SEC.12; P.L.99-2014, SEC.4; P.L.225-2015, SEC.2; P.L.204-2018, SEC.11; P.L.147-2020, SEC.18; P.L.160-2022, SEC.6.