An employee is at home on temporary disability for a workers' compensation injury and contracts measles from a child. Which benefits are payable for the measles under the compensable consequences doctrine?

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

Answer: (C)

The compensable consequences doctrine allows coverage for medical treatment and wage-replacement benefits for additional conditions that arise as a direct result of a compensable industrial injury or its treatment. In this scenario, the employee’s measles is a consequence of being off work for the industrial injury. Because the measles arises during the period of disability caused by the compensable injury, it is compensable. Therefore benefits should include medical treatment for both the original injury and the measles, plus indemnity for the disability tied to both conditions. The other options don’t fit because they either limit benefits to just one condition or omit the indemnity component for the consequences.