Idaho: Employer Saddled With $21,000 Life Flight Bill for Employee’s Cut Finger

An uninsured employer is required to pay $21,201 for Life Flight helicopter services in connection with injuries sustained by a part-time irrigator at the employer’s farm. The employee severely cut the tip of his left “pinky” finger when his hand slipped into the chain of a motor. Following the accident, the employee drove himself to the home of an off-duty police officer, who then called 911. EMTs arrived and made a determination that perhaps the tip of the finger could be reattached. They, therefore, summoned Life Flight. Efforts to reattach the tip later were, however, unsuccessful. The employer contended that the Life Flight trip was a needless expense and that it was not medically necessary. The high court disagreed. The high court acknowledged that with the benefit of hindsight, the decision to fly the employee to the hospital might not have been made. Judging the issue with hindsight was not, however, the appropriate standard. Given the circumstances, the high court said substantial and competent evidence supported the Commission’s decision.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Chavel v. Stokes, 2015 Ida. LEXIS 175 (July 7, 2015) [2015 Ida. LEXIS 175 (July 7, 2015)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 94.03 [94.03]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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