Ohio Code 4123.026 – Costs of post-exposure medical diagnostic services after peace officer, firefighter, emergency medical worker, or detention facility employees’ exposure to blood or other body fluid
(A) The administrator of workers’ compensation, a self-insuring public employer for the peace officers, firefighters, and emergency medical workers employed by or volunteering for that self-insuring public employer, or a detention facility that is a self-insuring employer for the facility’s employees, including corrections officers, shall pay the costs of conducting post-exposure medical diagnostic services, consistent with the standards of medical care existing at the time of the exposure, to investigate whether an injury or occupational disease was sustained by a peace officer, firefighter, emergency medical worker, or detention facility employee, including a corrections officer, when coming into contact with the blood or other body fluid of another person in the course of and arising out of the peace officer’s, firefighter’s, emergency medical worker’s, or detention facility employee’s employment, or when responding to an inherently dangerous situation in the manner described in, and in accordance with the conditions specified under, division (A)(1)(a) of section 4123.01 of the Revised Code, through any of the following means:
Terms Used In Ohio Code 4123.026
- Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
- Child: includes a posthumous child and a child legally adopted prior to the injury. See Ohio Code 4123.01
- employee: includes the following persons when responding to an inherently dangerous situation that calls for an immediate response on the part of the person, regardless of whether the person is within the limits of the jurisdiction of the person's regular employment or voluntary service when responding, on the condition that the person responds to the situation as the person otherwise would if the person were on duty in the person's jurisdiction:
(i) Off-duty peace officers. See Ohio Code 4123.01
- Employer: means :
(a) The state, including state hospitals, each county, municipal corporation, township, school district, and hospital owned by a political subdivision or subdivisions other than the state;
(b) Every person, firm, professional employer organization, alternate employer organization, and private corporation, including any public service corporation, that (i) has in service one or more employees or shared employees regularly in the same business or in or about the same establishment under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, or (ii) is bound by any such contract of hire or by any other written contract, to pay into the insurance fund the premiums provided by this chapter. See Ohio Code 4123.01
- Injury: includes any injury, whether caused by external accidental means or accidental in character and result, received in the course of, and arising out of, the injured employee's employment. See Ohio Code 4123.01
- Occupational disease: means a disease contracted in the course of employment, which by its causes and the characteristics of its manifestation or the condition of the employment results in a hazard which distinguishes the employment in character from employment generally, and the employment creates a risk of contracting the disease in greater degree and in a different manner from the public in general. See Ohio Code 4123.01
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Public employer: means an employer as defined in division (B)(1)(a) of this section. See Ohio Code 4123.01
- Self-insuring employer: means an employer who is granted the privilege of paying compensation and benefits directly under section 4123. See Ohio Code 4123.01
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
- United States: includes all the states. See Ohio Code 1.59
(1) Splash or spatter in the eye or mouth, including when received in the course of conducting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation;
(2) A puncture in the skin;
(3) A cut in the skin or another opening in the skin such as an open sore, wound, lesion, abrasion, or ulcer.
(B) The administrator, a self-insuring public employer, or a detention facility that is a self-insuring employer shall pay the costs of conducting post-exposure medical diagnostic services to investigate whether an employee described in division (A) of this section sustained an injury or occupational disease if both of the following apply:
(1) In the course of employment the employee is exposed to a drug or other chemical substance.
(2) The post-exposure medical diagnostic service is consistent with the standards of medical care existing at the time of exposure.
(C) As used in this section:
(1) “Peace officer” has the same meaning as in section 2935.01 of the Revised Code.
(2) “Firefighter” means a firefighter, whether paid or volunteer, of a lawfully constituted fire department.
(3) “Emergency medical worker” means a first responder, emergency medical technician-basic, emergency medical technician-intermediate, or emergency medical technician-paramedic, certified under Chapter 4765 of the Revised Code, whether paid or volunteer.
(4) “Corrections officer” means a person employed by a detention facility as a corrections officer.
(5) “Detention facility” means any public or private place used for the confinement of a person charged with or convicted of any crime in this state or another state or under the laws of the United States or alleged or found to be a delinquent child or unruly child in this state or another state or under the laws of the United States.