Billing for Failed Pre-employment Drug Screen

atainc

My questions deals with billing for pre-employment drug screens. Currently we bill our clients for pre-employment drug screening of applicants that have been made an offer of employment to and the offer has been accepted. When a test comes back from the lab with a positive result, the client feels that they should not be billed for the test. Is there a way that the applicant (or an employee since an offer was made and accepted) can be billed for the drug screen? This doesn't happen a lot, but we usually eat the cost of the drug test when it does. Any suggestions. Also, Happy Holidays to all and please keep our Military and their families in your prayers during this season.!

Down_the_Middle

I'm only aware of a couple of states that permit the employer to seek reimbursement from the employee if they do not satisfctorily complete the orientation period. In this case, the offer of employment is likely withdrawn and other cand's are considered. Sounds to me as though your "client " is making their problem, your problem. A test is a test, whether negative or non-negative. Why would the client object to being billed for non-negative results???? It'll be your call..force the issue and risk losing them (assuming it's a deal breaker) or absorb the cost and move on.

Balloonman1

They should not be employee's when they fail the pre-employment drug screen. They have accepted a position of employment but are completing the pre-employment requirements before coming on board. While it would be nice, it is not worth the trouble.
My $0.02 worth,
DJ The Balloonman

SamanthaQ

Not knowing enough about your industry or how the drug screens are administered it's hard to answer this question - but a thought for you - could you have the applicant pay the lab or medical office(or wherever they are taking the test) for their own test and then upon successful results get reimbursed?

POPEYE

While we can't know for sure since your profile is disabled, it sounds like your are in either the staffing or direct placement arena.

I, as a client, have written in our contract with such companies that we will not be responsible for the cost of a drug screen, either negative or positive, until that EE works XX number of hours.
As as been said many times on this forum, that's one of the costs of doing business.

hrwoman

I am assuming you work in the staffing industry since you state "your client doesn't want to pay for failed drug screens". When I worked in the staffing industry, we used to make the potential employee pay up front either in cash or money order for their drug screens. IF they passed the money was return, if they didn't it wasn't return. We made it very clear to them and they were told up front. Those that didnt' pass most of the time, didn't come back at all.

szemcumo

Once we extend an offer the app is sent immediately for the drug screen. I tell all app on the phone before the interview to be prepared that if an offer is extended they will have to pay the $35 for the drug screen. Once a negative result is returned and they complete the initial 28 days of employment they will recieve their money back. Failure to meet both of the requirements will result in no refund. They sign off on this before the go for the test. Also we have found that since starting this we have had apps cancel or not show up for the interview once I tell them this, which in turn tells me they wouldn't have passed!

Parabeagle

Interesting. Since the '80s when drug testing became popular, I've worked for three companies that did pre-employment screens. We never asked the applicant to pay for them under any circumstances - we just considered it the cost of doing business, like running a drivers' license or a background check.

szemcumo

We only started having them pay for it after we had 4-5 in a roll fail. Since we couldn't hire them we felt this was money wasted. If the app is clean they will have no problem paying knowing that they will get their money back is our take on this. We only do bkgr checks if the dt is negative. If that comes back bad and we rescind offer we eat that cost.

hhaynal

We contract with a temp agency to fullfill all of our hiring needs, both office and manufacturing. The contract states that the employer will only reimburse vendor (temp agency) for successful drug/background checks; agency pays for failed drug and background checks.