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Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation
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Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation
Discuss employment-law issues such as family leave, overtime, disabilities law, harassment, immigration and termination.
We have had a few situations where our policy is that if an employee passes out we call 911 and they are transported to the hospital or if we feel that an incident needs further medical attention
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Forums » Topic Forums » Legal Forum » Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation
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Re: Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation
posted at 9/6/2012 9:08 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 2
First: 9/20/2011 Last: 9/6/2012 |
First you need to understand Workman's Compensation better. Workman's Compensation is for an injury or illness that is caused by something relating to work. An employee has the right to refuse medical treatment, and if treatment is refused, should be noted on the First Report of Injury filed. Medical conditions that present themself at work are not necessarily work related and therefore not covered by Workman's Compensation. Any illness or injury not work related and not publicly disclosed by the employee is protected by HIPAA. Since you are inquiring about a policy for covering the cost when an ambulance is called and the person does not have insurance, perhaps the policy would be something along the line of: "if a representative of the employer determines that a call for emergency services are warranted, the company will reimburse any uncovered cost of an ambulance." If your medical insurance has a copay for an ambulance, you would need to cover that as well since it would be an uncovered cost. You should run all of this past your legal counsel and your accountant to ensure you don't create additional problems down the line. |
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Re: Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation
posted at 9/6/2012 3:21 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 174
First: 9/20/2011 Last: 2/11/2013 |
In Response to Re: Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation: Part of reasonable accommodations includes talking about what is happening with medical conditions. If the person explains to coworkers and HR that they have grand mal seizures and asks that the ambulance not be called unless the seziure lasts so long, this is not a HIPAA issue, nor is it involving any kind of medical evaluation,. The same with diabetic blood sugar dips. There should be no HIPAA issues when the person with the disability issue raises their needs to not be transported to the hospital every single time unnecessarily. Posted by slccom I understand your point .......but....... can you really decide in advance what to do? Would you really expect coworkers to wait, while the person has passed out, X number of minutes before calling for an ambulance? Is that reasonable? Consider the headline in the paper the next day when the person dies even though he asked you to wait. No legal liability? And is it really ok to tell all coworkers that the person suffers from certain medical conditions? Is it really proper for the person seeking accomodation to request how staff should respond to emergency situations? I am not an expert but these hypotheticals make me very uncomfortable. |
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Re: Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation
posted at 9/7/2012 2:32 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 1
First: 9/7/2012 Last: 9/7/2012 |
In Canada, if a person passes out in the workplace, you are required by law to have them transported to hospital. Also, a loss of consciousness requires that the Ministry of Labour be notified and they will do an investigation. If it is deemed not to be a work-related illness, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board will not pay for ambulance costs, but the employer will pick up that cost. Now, in the case of casual labour through an agency, the agency will pick up the cost of the ambulance. |
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Re: Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation
posted at 9/8/2012 12:22 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 10
First: 10/22/2011 Last: 1/17/2013 |
In Response to Re: Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation: In Response to Re: Employee medical costs not covered by Worker's Compensation : I understand your point .......but....... can you really decide in advance what to do? Would you really expect coworkers to wait, while the person has passed out, X number of minutes before calling for an ambulance? Is that reasonable? Consider the headline in the paper the next day when the person dies even though he asked you to wait. No legal liability? And is it really ok to tell all coworkers that the person suffers from certain medical conditions? Is it really proper for the person seeking accomodation to request how staff should respond to emergency situations? I am not an expert but these hypotheticals make me very uncomfortable. Posted by howard7 Howard, clearly you are priviliged to live without any major health conditions. Many people with epilepsy do not lose consciousness during their seizure, never mind have major convulsions. Many people with diabetes do not initially lose consciousness when their blood sugar falls. I believe that you will find that the majority prefer that those around them know when something is wrong so they can intervene (or not, depending.) Very few people die of a seizure, and if those around them know what might happen, what to do, and how to react properly, the ambulance crew can continue their poker game unmolested unless it is a genuine emergency. We know what happens. We know what needs to be done. We prefer to educate those around us so that we are safe. My diabetic friends make sure that I know what to expect if their sugar is falling, and where they keep the hard candy for me to pop in their mouth before they black out. If they do black out, and/or fail to come out of it in a few minutes, I know to call for help. That seems far more "proper" to me than to have people just let the diabetic keep going into a coma. Way less disruptive for everyone, too. My friends with epilepsy let me know that if they "zone out" and quit responding, they are having a seizure, and that I should keep an eye on them until they come out of it. And if it goes on beyond a certain time, to get medical help for them. And so on. Some people have seizure alert animals, or blood sugar alert animals so that they can handle things themselves most of the time. But they still need the people around them to be able to help them. HR or the employer is NOT responsible for telling all employees. The person with the medical condition does, or at least, those with whom they spend the most time. When it is the person with the medical condition, there is no HIPAA issue. Generally, Good Samaritan laws protect coworkers. Get it in writing, and I fail to see how there would be a valid legal liability issue. There are many other things that a lot of us let others know about. For example, I make darned sure that EVERYONE knows that I am hard of hearing. That keeps them from assuming that I am stupid instead. (Well, some of them, anyhow...) And that I have problems recognizing people until I have known them for a while. That way they don't (usually) assume that I am stuck-up or rude. In a workplace where people are not uncomfortable with disabilities, and recognize that the few things you cannot do don't have anything to do with how excellent a job you can do, and where employers don't use pretexts to get rid of "undesirables," this kind of communication goes on freely. And everyone benefits. |
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