Diseases

JudyRoy

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-04-02 AT 01:43PM (CST)[/font][p]One of our employees has contracted ringworm from one of our clients. She has no health insurance, but expects our company to reimburse her for the doctors visit. Are we legally liable to do so?

awilliams

Judy,

That is an interesting issue. It may depend on your state's workers comp laws, if you can believe that! What state are you in?

The other thing that you might want to consider is just paying the bill, regardless of whether you are required to do so. The cost of treatment is probably minimal and you will gain it back in good employee relations.

Anne Williams
Attorney Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers

JudyRoy

We are in Maryland. I liked your suggestion, so we are going to ask her to file a workers compensation claim and let them handle it.

Pork

JudyRoy: Your opening sentence answers it for me! We too deal with live animals and provide protective equipment to prevent the transfer of illness. Regardless of PE it can happen, and we are responsible under OSHA to take care of our employee and pay 100% of the cost of medical care, and disability payment if the physician kept the employee out of the work force for greater than 5 working days. The employee is allowed to take sick days off to fill in the loss wages if he/she desires to do so. Ring worms and other more dangerous "bugs" are around and OSHA would say the company is responsible for providing a safe and healthy working environment. We, like your organization, go to great lengths to prevent, but those little creepy crawlers get around our defenses and get us when it hurts most. Take care of the employee and learn more about the link between one source to another to prevent someone else from getting the "ring worm" or some other illness. Pork

franfields

I don't believe ringworm is a critter. It's a fungus that causes skin scaling and itching in a circular pattern and is contageous. Flea, now that's a critter. x:D