EE out sick and verification

reh

When an hourly employee is out sick we require a written statement from the doctor stating that they were seen in their office on that day. The employee does not incur points for that absence if they have a written note from the doctor stating they could not work due to sickness. There have been "rumors" that some employees are getting these written statements from "friends" who work in a doctors office. We have a plant manager who wants the employees to sign a authorization stating that we can verify these office visits with the doctor. Can we contact the doctors office to verify that the employee was actually seen on that day? Thanks in advance for your input.

TN HR

Nope, sorry, they won't do it due to HIPPA, and a million other reasons they will cite, etc......My "last" receptionist was suspected of getting her friend who was a medical assistant at her plastic surgeon's office to write these for her.

I finally confronted her with my suspicions and she came clean. She was gone in 60 seconds with no help whatsoever from the new implants.

The only time I've had any luck with these situations is the one time it involved an excuse written on a prescription form that I thought odd. I got push back from the doctor's office until I raised the possibility that a prescription pad had been lifted (turns out it had). That got their attention real quick!

Good luck.

Gene

marc

Even if you did get through, what is the likelihood you would get the person who is collaberating in the cover-up? So you might be right, but in that case, you would never know.

Don D

I totally disagree. You are perfectly at liberty to verify that the document you received is legitimate. It has nothing to do with HIPAA or medical information. You can verify that the document you received is correct and accurate and legitimate. And I would bypass a receptionist and ask specifically to speak to the nurse of Doctor X. You are not inquiring into or asking for any personal medical information when you verify the legitimacy of a note from a service provider. Go for it. Do it every time if you must.

SMace

I agree with Don. And no, I do not think you need to have ee's sign authorizations. Go ahead and check it.

hhaynal

I concur that you should contact the doctor's office and confirm legitimacy of the note and do not believe you would signed a signed authorization to do so.

I do not agree, however, that you should require a doctor's note for one days absence. Generally it is more acceptable to require a doctors note after three days absence from work and even requiring an employee to report to company nurse before being allowed to report to work upon return. But one day? Don't mean to be indelicate here, but what about those occasions that you ate something that didn't agree with you and your digestive system is out of whack and you feel horrid, so you call in sick. What about the individual who has severe diabetes and suffers whatever and doesn't feel well enough to come into work and calls out sick for one day? I could go on with many other examples and in each one the employee would not go and see a physician and thus obtain a doctors note. Three days is more reasonable.

As to not giving absence points to those employees who have a doctors note, while giving points to those employees who return to work without one, I have not come up with a rationale yet to support a bad feeling I have about that practice. I'd welcome comments pro and con from the forum on it though.

dynamite9551

let this be a heads-up out there for H/R gurus -- most doctor offices don't copy excuse slips so it will be difficult to confirm anything - even if they could (my staff better not) and we won't verify any information over the phone. period. "how do we know you are who you say you are"? (I can write a lot of things and put on company letterhead)! and lastly, if a patient wants an excuse we'll write it (who are we to question)even if they call and say they forgot to get one yesterday!!!!

it's a great idea and i hope it works for you - but not at this doctor's office!!!!

TN HR

No offense Dynamite, but this is exactly what I've encountered each time I've called a provider. Again, the one and only exception was when there was something tangible for them as in the possibility that one of their Rx pads was unaccounted for.

Gene

Hunter1

I hope you had your tongue firmly planted in your cheek when you wrote this answer!
You can tell who we are if you call us back at our work number. Easy enough to verify; we're in the phone book. And, yes, we all know that doctors' offices will write an excuse for a patient 'even if they call and say they forgot to get one yesterday'. We know you want to keep your patients and don't care that it's us who pay the bills. What ever happened to integrity?

Whatever

Dynamite, thanks for verifying what we all knew or strongly suspected. Medical notes and doctor's verification of disability are not worth the paper they are written on.

marc

First do no harm! The Hippocratic Oath sounds fine and noble, but I am quite distressed to see in black and white that it is a hippocritic oath. Sacrificing the Truth to the almighty buck has sunk to a new low. Integrity does not matter is what I am hearing. The reliance on providers to perform an important function in the scheme of the EE/ER relationship is being underminded by fraud. And from those we tend to trust the most. I would never dream of asking my Doctor to phony up and excuse. I have been with my current MD for 10 years and not only would I not ask, she would not comply with anything less than the truth. I am dismayed and disappointed.

Crout

What I suggest you do is fax over a copy of the note and simply request verification that the note and signature are genuine. If the doctor's office does not respond, assume that the note is fraudulent and initiate your normal procedure with the EE. When the EE complains, tell him to scream at the doctor's office. Since those doctors probably won't want to lose customers to other doctors with no integrity, they will quickly begin to at least respond to your requests.