Daily Archives: October 23, 2013
Positive Drug Test After Georgia Work Related Injury
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When you are injured at work, workers’ compensation insurance requires a drug test to be performed in order to determine whether or not you were under the influence of any illicit drugs. If you test positive for alcohol within three hours or a workplace accident, your workers’ compensation claim can be denied. A positive test for marijuana within 8 hours of a workplace accident can cause your claim to be denied as well. Also, your workers’ compensation claim can be denied if you refuse to take an alcohol or drug test within those required time limits. Unjustifiably refusing to submit to the drug or alcohol test has the same effect as testing positive for the test.
Under Georgia law, workers’ compensation benefits will also be denied if it is determined that the employee’s injury or death arose from their willful misconduct. This can include intentional self-inflicted injuries, injuries where the employee was attempting to injure another, or injuries resulting from the employee’s refusal or failure to use a safety appliance or apparatus that was supplied to them.
If a workers’ compensation claim is denied because of a failure to pass a drug or alcohol screen, however, the denial may still be appealed to possibly obtain workers’ compensation benefits. If you test positive for marijuana or other controlled substance pursuant to a drug test taken within eight hours of the accident, your case will be denied on the presumption that your injury was caused by intoxication. You will then have the burden of proving that you were not intoxicated at the time of the injury. Even if the positive drug screen is completed within the mandated time period, this only creates a presumption that the accident was related to the consumption of drugs or alcohol. This presumption is rebuttable, meaning that you can present evidence proving that you were not intoxicated at the time of the accident. To discuss the denial of your work injury claim after a positive drug or alcohol screen, call Atlanta workers’ compensation lawyer, Celia Sunne today.
Overprescribing Pain Medications in Atlanta Injured Workers Cases
The largest workers’ compensation benefits and reimbursements that are paid out every year go to employees who are catastrophically injured, losing limbs and functions in the process. These injured workers are treated by using strong pain medicines, and some of these workers don’t return to work for a long while, if ever.
Workplace insurers are spending an estimated $1.4 billion every year on narcotic painkillers. Also known as opioids, these medications are highly addictive. Insurance companies are beginning to realize something quite starting: if used too early in treatment, too frequently, or for too long, it can delay an employee’s return to work and, in turn, increase disability payouts and medical expenses for the employee.
In 2008, the California Workers Compensation Institute did a study which found that workers receiving high doses of opioid painkillers to treat their job-related injuries stayed off the job three times longer whend compared to employees with similar injuries, but taking lower doses of the same medications.
A study was conducted in 2010 by Accident Fund Holdings, an insurer operating in eighteen states, including Georgia. The analysis by them found that in cases where medical care and payments are combined, the workplace injury cost is nine times higher when a narcotic like OxyContin is used compared to when no narcotic is used at all.
The use of drugs like OxyContin, Percocet, and Duragesic to treat occupational injuries are part of a broad problem that involves their excessive use and addictive natures. These narcotics are prescribed to treat immediate pain but there is little evidence of their long-term benefit. The main and most problematic issue arises from their high addiction level and the serious side effects of withdrawal. Basically, there is an obvious association between the greater use of opioids and delayed recovery from workplace injuries. Some states, such as New York, Colorado, Texas and Washington, have issued new pain treatment guidelines in an attempt to find means for reversing the trend.