Q: If an employee neglected to take prescribed meds and passes out is the employer responsible for his hospital bills
We had an employee that was working out in the field at a plant for one of our projects and he passed out due to not taken his regular prescribed medication. He was rushed to the hospital and now he has bills coming in and he feels the company should pay for the bills. Not only that he thinks that the incident qualifies for workers compensation. When the employee was bought to the hospital he admitted that he hadn't been taking his meds correctly.
A: This will be a factual issue to be decided by the fact finders. I have seen it go both ways on wc cases. For instance many times the DWC will look to the instrumentality of the injury. If for instance the worker was on a rig and fell off hitting his shoulder on the ground the DWC has held the injury was because he fell off the employer's rig. The same can be said for idiopathic falls when walking across the employers parking lot, DWC has held that it is a compensable injury. Keep in mind that wc is a no fault based system. It may seem it was the worker's fault for not taking medication but fault does not matter.
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