An employee is at home receiving temporary disability and contracts measles from a child. Which liability is applicable under workers’ compensation rules?

An employee is at home receiving temporary disability and contracts measles from a child. Which liability is applicable under workers’ compensation rules?

• A. Medical and indemnity.
• B. Medical treatment for both maladies.
• C. Medical treatment for the measles pursuant to the compensable consequences doctrine.
• D. Medical treatment and indemnity for the industrial injury only.

Answer: (D)

The key idea is that workers’ compensation covers the injury that occurs on the job and any natural, direct consequences of that injury, including medical treatment and wage-replacement (indemnity) during recovery. Diseases or illnesses you contract from non-work sources while off work aren’t compensable as part of the work injury. Here, the employee is off work due to an industrial injury and then contracts measles from a child at home. The measles is not caused by the work injury and isn’t a compensable consequence of the industrial accident. Therefore, benefits under workers’ compensation apply to the industrial injury itself—medical treatment for that injury and indemnity for temporary disability—while medical care for the measles isn’t covered. That’s why the correct outcome is medical treatment and indemnity for the industrial injury only.

The key idea is that workers’ compensation covers the injury that occurs on the job and any natural, direct consequences of that injury, including medical treatment and wage-replacement (indemnity) during recovery. Diseases or illnesses you contract from non-work sources while off work aren’t compensable as part of the work injury.

Here, the employee is off work due to an industrial injury and then contracts measles from a child at home. The measles is not caused by the work injury and isn’t a compensable consequence of the industrial accident. Therefore, benefits under workers’ compensation apply to the industrial injury itself—medical treatment for that injury and indemnity for temporary disability—while medical care for the measles isn’t covered.

That’s why the correct outcome is medical treatment and indemnity for the industrial injury only.