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Alaska Statutes.

Title 23. Labor and Workers' Compensation

Chapter 30. Alaska Workers' Compensation Act

Section 395. Definitions.

AS 23.30.395. Definitions.

In this chapter

(1) "adoption" or "adopted" means legal adoption before the time of the injury;

(2) "arising out of and in the course of employment" includes employer-required or supplied travel to and from a remote job site; activities performed at the direction or under the control of the employer; and employer-sanctioned activities at employer-provided facilities; but excludes recreational league activities sponsored by the employer, unless participation is required as a condition of employment, and activities of a personal nature away from employer-provided facilities;

(3) "attending physician" means one of the following designated by the employee under AS 23.30.095 (a) or (b):

(A) a licensed medical doctor;

(B) a licensed doctor of osteopathy;

(C) a licensed dentist or dental surgeon;

(D) a licensed physician assistant acting under supervision of a licensed medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy;

(E) a licensed advanced nurse practitioner; or

(F) a licensed chiropractor;

(4) "board" means the Alaska Workers' Compensation Board;

(5) "brother" and "sister" include stepbrothers and stepsisters, half brothers and half sisters, and brothers and sisters by adoption, but do not include married brothers and married sisters unless wholly dependent on the employee;

(6) "carrier" means a person authorized to insure under this chapter and includes self-insurers;

(7) "child" includes a posthumous child, a child legally adopted before the injury of the employee, a child in relation to whom the deceased employee stood in loco parentis for at least one year before the time of injury, and a stepchild or acknowledged illegitimate child dependent upon the deceased, but does not include married children unless wholly dependent on the employee;

(8) "child," "grandchild," "brother," and "sister," include only persons who are under 19 years of age, persons who, though 19 years of age or over, are wholly dependent upon the deceased employee and incapable of self-support by reason of mental or physical disability, and persons of any age while they are attending the first four years of vocational school, trade school, or college, and persons of any age while they are attending high school;

(9) "chronic debilitating pain" means pain that is of more than six months duration and that is of sufficient severity that it significantly restricts the employee's ability to perform the activities of daily living;

(10) "commission" means the Workers' Compensation Appeals Commission;

(11) "commissioner" means the commissioner of labor and workforce development;

(12) "compensation" means the money allowance payable to an employee or the dependents of the employee as provided for in this chapter, and includes the funeral benefits provided for in this chapter;

(13) "death" as a basis for a right to compensation means only death resulting from an injury;

(14) "department" means the Department of Labor and Workforce Development;

(15) "director" means the director of the division of workers' compensation in the department;

(16) "disability" means incapacity because of injury to earn the wages which the employee was receiving at the time of injury in the same or any other employment;

(17) "division" means the division of workers' compensation in the department;

(18) "drugs" means a controlled substance as defined by law;

(19) "employee" means an employee employed by an employer as defined in (20) of this section;

(20) "employer" means the state or its political subdivision or a person employing one or more persons in connection with a business or industry coming within the scope of this chapter and carried on in this state;

(21) "grandchild" means a child as defined in (6) of this section;

(22) "gross earnings" means periodic payments, by an employer to an employee for employment before any authorized or lawfully required deduction or withholding of money by the employer, including compensation that is deferred at the option of the employee, and excluding irregular bonuses, reimbursement of expenses, expense allowances, and any benefit or payment to the employee that is not fully taxable to the employee during the pay period, except that the total amount of contributions made by an employer to a qualified pension or profit sharing plan during the two plan years preceding the injury, multiplied by the percentage of the employee's vested interest in the plan at the time of injury, shall be included in the determination of gross earnings; the value of room and board if taxable to the employee may be considered in determining gross earnings; however, the value of room and board that would raise an employee's gross weekly earning above the state average weekly wage at the time of injury may not be considered;

(23) "gross weekly earnings" means gross weekly earnings as calculated under AS 23.30.220 (a);

(24) "injury" means accidental injury or death arising out of and in the course of employment, and an occupational disease or infection that arises naturally out of the employment or that naturally or unavoidably results from an accidental injury; "injury" includes breakage or damage to eyeglasses, hearing aids, dentures, or any prosthetic devices that function as part of the body and further includes an injury caused by the wilful act of a third person directed against an employee because of the employment;

(25) "married" includes a person who is divorced but is required by the decree of divorce to contribute to the support of the former spouse;

(26) "medical and related benefits" includes but is not limited to physicians' fees, nurses' charges, hospital services, hospital supplies, medicine and prosthetic devices, physical rehabilitation, and treatment for the fitting and training for use of such devices as may reasonably be required which arises out of or is necessitated by an injury, and transportation charges to the nearest point where adequate medical facilities are available;

(27) "medical stability" means the date after which further objectively measurable improvement from the effects of the compensable injury is not reasonably expected to result from additional medical care or treatment, notwithstanding the possible need for additional medical care or the possibility of improvement or deterioration resulting from the passage of time; medical stability shall be presumed in the absence of objectively measurable improvement for a period of 45 days; this presumption may be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence;

(28) "palliative care" means medical care or treatment rendered to reduce or moderate temporarily the intensity of pain caused by an otherwise stable medical condition, but does not include those medical services rendered to diagnose, heal, or permanently alleviate or eliminate a medical condition;

(29) "parent" includes stepparents and parents by adoption, parents-in-law, and a person who for more than three years before the death of the deceased employee stood in the place of a parent to the employee, if dependent on the injured employee;

(30) "payroll taxes" means

(A) the amount that would be withheld under withholding tables in effect on the January 1 preceding the injury under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 as amended and regulations issued under the code, as though the employee had claimed the maximum number of dependents for actual dependency, blindness, and old age to which the employee is entitled on the date on which the employee is injured; and

(B) the amount that is or would be deducted or withheld as of the January 1 preceding the injury under the Social Security Act of 1935 as amended from the amount of earnings of the employee at the time of the injury as if the earnings were earned at the beginning of the calendar year in which the employee was injured and regardless of whether the amount was actually withheld or the earnings were subject to withholding;

(31) "physician" includes doctors of medicine, surgeons, chiropractors, osteopaths, dentists, and optometrists;

(32) "prosthetic devices" includes but is not limited to eye glasses, hearing aids, dentures, and such other devices and appliances, and the repair or replacement of the devices necessitated by ordinary wear and arising out of an injury;

(33) "regularly organized volunteer fire department" means a volunteer fire department registered with the state fire marshal which has official recognition and financial support from the political subdivision where it is situated;

(34) "reserve rate" means the unencumbered second injury fund balance on October 31 of each year as a percentage of disbursements from the second injury fund during the 12-month period ending on June 30 of the same calendar year;

(35) "self-insurer" means an employer who, instead of insuring liability under this chapter as it provides, elects to pay directly the compensation provided for, and who has furnished to the board satisfactory proof of the employer's financial ability to make the direct payments;

(36) "volunteer ambulance attendant" means an individual who serves as an ambulance attendant on a temporary, voluntary basis with a volunteer or full-time fire department or municipal ambulance service of a general law or home rule municipality;

(37) "volunteer emergency medical technician" means a person who (A) is certified by the state as an emergency medical technician under AS 18.08 or (B) is an active roster volunteer member of a state certified emergency medical service and is registered with the Department of Health and Social Services, and who provides emergency medical services on a voluntary basis;

(38) "volunteer fire fighter" means an individual whose name is registered with the state fire marshal as a member of a regularly organized volunteer fire department or who serves with a full-time fire department on a temporary, voluntary basis;

(39) "volunteer police officer" means an individual who serves as a peace officer with a full-time police department of a general law or home rule municipality on a temporary, voluntary basis;

(40) "widow" includes only the decedent's wife living with or dependent for support upon the decedent at the time of death, or living apart for justifiable cause or by reason of the decedent's desertion at such a time;

(41) "widower" includes only the decedent's husband living with or dependent for support upon the decedent at the time of death, or living apart for justifiable cause or by reason of the decedent's desertion at such a time.