Who pays for pre-Employment medical exams?

Q. We require new employees to undergo pre-employment medical exams. May we require a new employee to cover the cost of the exam? We have 35 employees.

A. No. For employers of 25 or more employees, North Carolina law prohibits an employer from requiring any applicant to pay for the cost of a medical examination or for the cost of furnishing any medical records required by the employer.

Under the federal ADA, medical exams are typically permissible, within defined parameters, only after an offer of employment has been made, but before employment has begun. Courts have not yet addressed whether a post-offer employee might still be considered an “applicant” under the North Carolina statute, but the language of the statute is broad enough to suggest he or she would be.