2025 Session Last amended: 2024 session

§ 176.87 — Employees Contracting Tuberculosis to Receive Medical Care and Compensation

Plain-Language Summary

This section provides workers' compensation medical care and benefits to certain public employees who contract tuberculosis on the job. It covers sanitarium, medical laboratory, and institutional employees of the state, a county, or another subdivision, and licensed nurses employed by those entities, whose work brings them into contact with tuberculosis patients or contaminated material and who then contract the disease. Such workers are entitled to the medical care and compensation provided by sections 176.87 to 176.873. "Contracts tuberculosis" means developing demonstrable tuberculosis lesions or showing the tuberculosis germ in the person's secretions or excretions.

176.87 EMPLOYEES CONTRACTING TUBERCULOSIS TO RECEIVE MEDICAL CARE AND COMPENSATION.

Any sanitarium, medical laboratories or institutional employee of the state or of any county or other subdivision of the state, or any duly licensed nurse employed by the state or by any county, city, nursing district or other subdivision of the state, whose duties in connection with such employment bring or have brought the employee or nurse in contact with patients or persons who are afflicted with tuberculosis, or with tuberculosis contaminated material, who contracts tuberculosis, shall be entitled to the medical care and compensation provided by sections 176.87 to 176.873. “Contracts tuberculosis” shall be construed to mean the development of demonstrable lesions of tuberculosis or the demonstration of the germs of tuberculosis in that person’s secretions or excretions.

History:

1947 c 616 s 1; 1949 c 558 s 2; 1957 c 31 s 1; 1973 c 123 art 5 s 7; 1986 c 444; 2014 c 262 art 3 s 18; art 5 s 6; 2024 c 79 art 9 s 8; art 10 s 1; 2024 c 125 art 5 s 38; 2024 c 127 art 50 s 38

History: History: 1947 c 616 s 1; 1949 c 558 s 2; 1957 c 31 s 1; 1973 c 123 art 5 s 7; 1986 c 444; 2014 c 262 art 3 s 18; art 5 s 6; 2024 c 79 art 9 s 8; art 10 s 1; 2024 c 125 art 5 s 38; 2024 c 127 art 50 s 38

Practical Notes

If you are a state, county, or other public-subdivision sanitarium, lab, or institutional worker, or a licensed public-sector nurse, and your job exposes you to tuberculosis patients or contaminated material, you are entitled to workers’ compensation medical care and benefits if you catch tuberculosis. The law defines having tuberculosis as showing actual lesions or the germ in your body, so a confirmed diagnosis is what triggers coverage.

Source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes