§ 607-b. Performance of duty disability retirement. a. Any member of the New York city employees' retirement system who is employed by the city of New York or by the New York city health and hospital corporation in the position of emergency medical technician or advanced emergency medical technician, as those terms are defined in § 3001 of the public health law, who, on or after March seventeenth, nineteen hundred ninety-six, becomes physically or mentally incapacitated for the performance of duties as the natural and proximate result of an injury, sustained in the performance or discharge of his or her duties shall be paid a performance of duty disability retirement allowance equal to three-quarters of final average salary, subject to section 13-176 of the administrative code of the city of New York. Any member who has made application or who, after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand four which amended this subdivision, makes application for such performance of duty pension shall be entitled to invoke the medical review procedure provided for in subdivision e of section six hundred five of this article, subject to the terms and conditions set forth in such subdivision.

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b. Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or of any general or special law to the contrary, a member covered by this section who contracts HIV (where the member may have been exposed to a bodily fluid of a person under his or her care or treatment, or while the member examined, transported or otherwise had contact with such person, in the performance of his or her duties) tuberculosis or hepatitis, will be presumed to have contracted such disease in the performance or discharge of his or her duties, unless the contrary be proved by competent evidence.

c. 1. (a) Notwithstanding any provisions of this chapter or of any general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or regulation to the contrary, if any condition or impairment of health is caused by a qualifying World Trade Center condition as defined in section two of this chapter, it shall be presumptive evidence that it was incurred in the performance and discharge of duty and the natural and proximate result of an accident not caused by such member's own willful negligence, unless the contrary be proved by competent evidence.

(b) the head of each retirement system is hereby authorized to promulgate rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this paragraph.

2. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter or of any general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or regulation to the contrary, if a member who participated in World Trade Center rescue, recovery or cleanup operations as defined in section two of this chapter, and subsequently retired on a service retirement, an ordinary disability retirement, a performance of duty disability retirement, or was separated from service with a vested right to deferred payability of a retirement allowance, and subsequent to such retirement or separation is determined by the comptroller to have a qualifying World Trade Center condition, as defined in section two of this chapter, upon such determination by the head of the retirement system, it shall be presumed that such disability was incurred in the performance and discharge of duty as the natural and proximate result of an accident not caused by such member's own willful negligence, and that the member would have been physically or mentally incapacitated for the performance and discharge of duty of the position from which he or she retired had the condition been known and fully developed at the time of the member's retirement, unless the contrary is proven by competent evidence.

(b) The head of the retirement system shall consider a reclassification of the member's retirement or vesting as an accidental disability retirement effective as of the date of such reclassification.

(c) Such member's retirement option shall not be changed as a result of such reclassification.

(d) The member's former employer at the time of the member's retirement shall have an opportunity to be heard on the member's application for reclassification by the NYCERS board of trustees according to procedures developed by the NYCERS board of trustees.

(e) The head of each retirement system is hereby authorized to promulgate rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this paragraph.

d. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or of any general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or regulation to the contrary, if a retiree or vestee who: (1) has met the criteria of subdivision c of this section and retired on a service or disability retirement, would have met the criteria if not already retired on an accidental disability, or was separated from service with a vested right to deferred payability of a retirement allowance; and (2) has not been retired for more than twenty-five years; and (3) dies from a qualifying World Trade Center condition, as defined in section two of this chapter, as determined by the applicable head of the retirement system or applicable medical board, then unless the contrary be proven by competent evidence, such retiree or vestee shall be deemed to have died as a natural and proximate result of an accident sustained in the performance of duty and not as a result of willful negligence on his or her part. Such retiree's or vestee's eligible beneficiary, as set forth in section six hundred one of this article, shall be entitled to an accidental death benefit as provided by section six hundred seven of this article, however, for the purposes of determining the salary base upon which the accidental death benefit is calculated, the retiree or vestee shall be deemed to have died on the date of his or her retirement or separation from service with vested rights. Upon the retiree's or vestee's death, the eligible beneficiary shall make a written application to the head of the retirement system within the time for filing an application for an accidental death benefit as set forth in section six hundred seven of this article requesting conversion of such retiree's service, vested right or disability retirement benefit to an accidental death benefit. At the time of such conversion, the eligible beneficiary shall relinquish all rights to the prospective benefits payable under the service or disability retirement benefit, or vested right to such benefit, including any post-retirement death benefits, since the retiree's or vestee's death. If the eligible beneficiary is not the only beneficiary receiving or entitled to receive a benefit under the service or disability retirement benefit (including, but not limited to, post-retirement death benefits or benefits paid or payable pursuant to the retiree's option selection), or that will be eligible under the vested right, the accidental death benefit payments to the eligible beneficiary will be reduced by any amounts paid or payable to any other beneficiary.

e. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or of any general, special or local law, charter, administrative code or rule or regulation to the contrary, if a member who: (1) has met the criteria of subdivision c of this section; (2) dies in active service or after separating from service with a vested right to deferred payability of a retirement allowance, but prior to the payability of that retirement allowance; and (3) dies from a qualifying World Trade Center condition, as defined in section two of this chapter, as determined by the applicable head of the retirement system or applicable medical board to have been caused by such member's participation in the World Trade Center rescue, recovery or cleanup operations, as defined in section two of this chapter, then unless the contrary be proven by competent evidence, such member shall be deemed to have died as a natural and proximate result of an accident sustained in the performance of duty and not as a result of willful negligence on his or her part. Such member's eligible beneficiary, as set forth in section six hundred one of this article, shall be entitled to an accidental death benefit provided he or she makes written application to the head of the retirement system within the time for filing an application for an accidental death benefit as set forth in section six hundred seven of this article.