4123.026 Costs of post-exposure medical diagnostic services after peace officer, firefighter, or emergency medical worker's exposure to blood or other body fluid.
4123.026 Costs of post-exposure medical diagnostic services after peace officer, firefighter, or emergency medical worker's exposure to blood or other body fluid.
(A) The administrator of workers’ compensation, or a self-insuring public employer for the peace officers, firefighters, and emergency medical workers employed by or volunteering for that self-insuring public employer, 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, or emergency medical worker 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, or emergency medical worker’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:
(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) 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.
Effective Date: 03-14-2003