Drug screen and incident report

AnnGee

I am wondering how others handle a drug screen when the employee does not submit a claim with workers comp, but just writes up an incident report. We still require a drug testing, is this normal? We have not indicated accidents vs incidents in our policy. Thanks.

Down_the_Middle

It sounds to me as though you have a Post-accident type of policy which requires a drug screen following the work related injury. This is one of many reasons why I've never been a fan of the post injury type of testing (I recognize some industries are compelled to do this). It's a difficult thing to administer---------employee delays in reporting the injury, avoids the required drug screen and is disciplined for not reporting it in a timely manner. Most states permit claims to be filed 30-60 days after DOI, so the aggressive employer disciplines the employee and is likely "retaliating" for knowledge of a w/c claim......... A solution to this is to simply require the drug screen in a timely manner w/o regard to the "paper" being completed. Those who choose to delay reporting the injury claim may risk denial of its compensability &/or be subject to failure to receive the drug screen in a timely manner.

LarryC

If the "incident" happens to be a fender- bender with company vehicle, we drug test. If the "incident " is a first-aid only (band-aid, etc.), no drug test., unless reasonable cause.

atrimble

If the EE receives only first aid (no professional medical treatment), we consider it minor incident (formerly known as a "near miss")and don't test. If the EE requests or seeks treatment by a medical professional, we send them to our work comp doc and he does the test at the time of the treatment/exam. If the employee seeks treatment on their own and waits up to 60 days to report that they went to the doctor (or we get a bill from an unknown doctor), we call the employee in and verbally reprimand for not following procedure, and then immediately send them to the work comp doc. So the post-injury drug testing is done within 24 hours of the employer finding out about the injury.

By the way, our employees don't submit claims - we submit claims on employees. If they do, that's also a violation of procedure.

AnnGee

Thanks for your insight. This employee did finally go get stitches and we drug tested. But now i know how to respond in the future with a "near miss". thanks.