An employee at home for a workers' compensation injury contracts measles from a child. What are you liable for?

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

Answer: (B)

The concept at work is the compensable consequences doctrine. This rule lets coverage extend to conditions that arise as a natural and probable result of the industrial injury or its treatment. When a worker is off work recovering from a work-related injury, illnesses that occur during that period can be treated as consequences of the injury, provided they are a foreseeable outcome of the injury or its care.

In this scenario, the employee contracts measles at home while recovering from the work injury. Because the measles appears during the recovery period and is tied to the situation created by the industrial injury and its treatment, it can be viewed as a compensable consequence. That means medical treatment for the measles should be covered alongside medical treatment for the industrial injury itself.

So, you’re liable for medical treatment for both maladies under the compensable consequences doctrine. Indemnity would depend on disability status and is not the focus of this particular question.