A company advertises a job opening for a worker to pack and load heavy boxes onto trucks. It would seem an easy position to fill.
But what if that applicant shows up with two good, strong arms and appears to be a perfect candidate for the job, but has a history of back trouble that resulted in a number of previous Workers' Compensation claims? Not as easy to make the call this time. And virtually impossible if no pre-employment medical testing is put into place, particularly by a medical practitioner who understands the job requirements and what it takes physically to accomplish them.
With budget and personnel cut backs, many companies are also cutting back on pre-employment practices. Five years ago investing $300-$400 in a pre-employment physical, blood work, and drug testing was palpable. Today, when a company is looking for money to fix the office copier machine, maybe not as much.
But employers are also aware of the high-cost of Workers' Compensation claims, which have them doing a high-wire act to make sure they hire the right employee for the job, while protecting the safety of their other workers (and in some instances, the public). The latter is especially important because failure to do so sends a silent message to their other workers that the company doesn't care whom they hire, even if it impairs job safety. And in the workplace, a silent message can sound like a jet plane taking off.
Obviously, no employer wants to inherit an existing injury when putting someone new on the clock, only to see a slight aggravation in the line of duty become totally their responsibility. But the possibility always exists.
A perfect example is an ice cream manufacturer in Pennsylvania who saw his Workers' Compensation Experience Modification Factor skyrocket to more then three times what it should be. The elevated Experience Mod was caused by several open claims, which were a direct result of improper or non-existent hiring procedures. The company did not conduct pre-employment background checks and physicals. This opened the door for at least two employees to come on payroll with existing soft tissue injuries to the back and shoulder, a condition further aggravated by the cold temperatures they encountered on the job.
Each state addresses the aggravation or exacerbation of a pre-existing condition differently. In most states, if the on-the-job injury exacerbates a pre-existing condition (even by 1%) it is considered to be a part of the payable injury. This is conditional upon the physician being able to say that within "reasonable medical probability" the pre-existing condition was and still is aggravated by the on-the-job injury.