Ohio Supreme Court Rules on Workers' Compensation Coverage of Mental Health Conditions

A Human Resources E-Alert

On June 4, 2013, the Ohio Supreme Court found that mental health conditions are covered under Ohio workers’ compensation law only when they are causally related to compensable physical injuries. In this case, which appeared in a recent Columbus Dispatch article, the employee was injured as well as suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from a traffic accident in 2009. However, the court ruled the PTSD was not compensable because it was causally related to the employee witnessing another person die in the accident rather than being related to his own compensable physical injuries.