Health insurance would be unlikely to cover an employment drug screen.
If you're not paying for it, the employer is. Same with the background check. And it makes sense that if the employer is requiring these things that they should pay for them. They get to expense it as an administrative cost of hiring.
Employers make employees pay for them often enough that many states have laws prohibiting it
> Q: Can I make an applicant/employee pay for the costs involved in drug testing?
A: There are certain states that specifically address this issue, and employers should familiarize themselves with their state requirements. For example, employers in New Jersey cannot make a candidate pay for his/her drug testing (or medical or other evaluations), unless the position they are applying for is that of a security guard.
I mean, employee drug testing (outside a small number of specific fields and roles) is unthinkable enough as it is, but making the employee also pay for that kind of invasion of their privacy is just despicable.
I really hate having to pay for tenant background checks now. It gives the background check company free reign to change whatever they want and they are friggin expensive! My state allows landlords to pass down the exact cost of the background check to the tenant which really isn't fair IMO, it should be considered a cost of doing business.
I solved that problem by purchasing a house. Landlords around here have gotten crazy since the housing bubble burst.
What? No, health insurance doesn't cover pre employment drug screening which is not in the least medically necessary. It certainly doesn't cover pre employment background checks(!) which are not medical at all. These are paid for by the employer who ordered them. Since you have to actually give a provider your health insurance information and permission to bill said insurance I would know if they where billing the insurance company. Plus you'd get an EOB as well. My first full time job out of college I didn't have health insurance at the time of the test.
They could pass the cost onto you (which has become the standard for landlords now) but in my experience they don't probably because it may not be legal as these tests can be prohibitively expensive for low income people. In competitive industries may effect recruitment in a negative way. They probably do in low skill jobs if legal.
I worked in a job that required yearly TB screening too which was similarly paid for by my employer. Might have been a health department requirement so they probably have strict rules/protocol around that.
Drug prescreening and background checks aren't done until you have accepted the job. The job offer says "job offer is contingent on passing drug test/background check" so they only screen new hires who have already committed and not everyone who interviewed.
No, insurance will never pay for that kind of test. Insurance only pays for medically necessary testing.
The employer will pay, or very rarely the employee, and even then usually the way it works is if you pass the test they give you back your money in your first paycheck.
