Tag: healthcare
Health and Safety: OSHA Updates Avian Flu Guidance
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has unveiled new safety and health guidance for protecting workers from avian flu. The new document, which updates avian flu guidance by OSHA in 2004, alerts employees and employers about the hazards of occupational exposure to avian influenza from infected birds and provides practical recommendations on ways to […]
Health Benefits: Schwarzenegger Vetoes Health Care Measures
In other legislation news, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed bills that would have required large employers to spend a certain percentage of their total wages on healthcare insurance and that would have created a single-payer government-run health care system.
Alternative Workweeks: Court Limits Overtime for Healthcare Workers on Alternative Workweek; Tips to Avoid Lawsuits
More Employees Declining Health Benefits
A new study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reveals that the percentage of workers who accepted their employer’s offer of healthcare insurance dropped from 85.3 percent in 1998 to 80.3 percent in 2003. The drop means that 3 million fewer workers who are eligible for employer-sponsored health coverage elected to enroll in it over […]
Employee Shift Switching May Pose Multiple Legal Problems
We are a hospital. Our employees often switch shifts or take extra shifts for someone else. They have their own informal system for handling switches and it works—we always have coverage. But I’m worried about compensation issues. They handle their pay as though they had worked their normal shifts, and they take care of paying […]
Family and Medical Leave: When Can You Require a New Certification of a Serious Health Condition?
Suppose an employee takes time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for his or her own serious health condition, and you require a healthcare provider’s certification confirming the need for leave. After a year goes by, the employee needs additional leave for the same health problem. Can you require this person to […]
Employee Leave: What Constitutes Reasonable Accommodation for an Employee’s Disability?
We have several employees who have exhausted their leave time under FMLA/CFRA, but now we’re wondering if we have to accommodate them for additional time since they may be considered “disabled” under the ADA. How do we determine whether they’re in fact disabled, and, if so, how long do we have to allow these employees […]
Employees May Shoulder Bigger Health Care Costs
According to the results of a new survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, business owners and benefits managers whose companies currently pay for at least some health-insurance benefits expect healthcare costs to jump an additional 12 percent over the next year–and they will ask their employees to pay an average of 21 percent of […]
News Notes: HIPAA Security Rules Finalized
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released final security standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) for protecting individually identifiable health information. The standards require health insurers and certain healthcare providers and clearinghouses to establish procedures to protect the confidentiality of electronically maintained or transmitted health information. […]