An administrative law judge has ordered the Workers' Compensationagency to buy a whirlpool bath for an injured woman and now stateofficials worry copycat requests will drain their funds.
An unidentified woman with a work-related back injury submittedthe claim for the tub.
Her doctor said the bath was part of her therapy, but Workers'Compensation rejected it.
'It's the first request of this nature I'm aware of,' SteveCavender, program manager at the agency's Office of Medical Service,said Monday. 'Workers' Compensation has a schedule of equipment wepay for. Certainly, a Jacuzzi is not one of the things we cover.'
The woman protested, and on appeal, Administrative Law Judge AlanDrescher reversed the agency's decision.
'We tried to get away with buying an insert to the existingbathtub, but it was not acceptable,' Cavender said.
An insert costs $300 to $400. The selected whirlpool tub cost$5,000, Cavender said.
Workers' Compensation offered to buy a health club membership orpay for visits to a physical therapist, where the woman would haveaccess to a whirlpool.
In the end, the two sides settled on a $2,000 model. The agencyalso spent $600 to pour a concrete pad outside her house for thetub.
Private and public insurers in West Virginia, including thePublic Employees Insurance Agency and Mountain State Blue Cross-Blue Shield, said they would balk at paying such a claim.
David Mathieu of Health Plan of the Upper Ohio Valley said hiscompany specifically excludes hot tubs.
'The cold hard fact is this: If someone needs to get a whirlpoolthree times a day, then it's their nickel,' Mathieu said.
