Sinus Infections
jarmstrong
4 Posts
Hello all. I wanted to get opinions from you all about whether you would approve this employee's serious health condition or not.
I received the med cert yesterday and the doctor states that the employee has recurring sinus infections that may spread to lungs causing bronchitis. Each episode may last 1-5 days every 3-4 months. She goes to the doctor each quarter and is on allergy medication as well as occasionally antibiotics when it's a true infection.
What do you all think? Would you approve a person with this health condition? This one is gray to me so any advice would be most appreciated!!
I received the med cert yesterday and the doctor states that the employee has recurring sinus infections that may spread to lungs causing bronchitis. Each episode may last 1-5 days every 3-4 months. She goes to the doctor each quarter and is on allergy medication as well as occasionally antibiotics when it's a true infection.
What do you all think? Would you approve a person with this health condition? This one is gray to me so any advice would be most appreciated!!
Comments
FYI - it is usually in the employer's best interest to designate leave as FMLA because that gets the timeline started for the 12 weeks of leave. Look at it this way, if you don't designate as FMLA- this person may be out of work 3-5 days each month (for a total of 36-60 days a year, or between 7 and 12 work weeks) and then have another reason for FMLA leave (pregnancy, new baby, another serious helath condition, serious health condition of child or spouse, etc.) and be able to take off the full 12 weeks then - for a total of 19-24 weeks off of work with the full protection of FMLA for the final 12 weeks! And if you do it for one person ...
Anne Williams
Attorney Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers, LLC
Thank you to those who have replied!
Thanks!
Anne Williams
Attorney Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers, LLC
FMLA is good motivation for employers who want to do what is right for their employees, but it sure is a challenge when an employee happens to be savvy enough to figure out how to abuse the system. We have several who have figured out that FMLA is a good insulator from discipline for bad attendance.
And to AWilliams' question, my input is this: The most damaging thing we face right now is the FACT that doctors on whichever streetcorner will certify and 'find' whatever the patient wants them to 'find'. FMLA h as been a spear in the side of manufacturing for sure. The abuse is tremendous. And the number one enabler to the abuse is the fact that most medical people will write out whatever you want them to. My interaction with current employees reveals that one of the most frequent questions the doctor will ask the patient is, "How long do you want to be out?" We've had this problem with 'comp' injuries for years because 'comp' pays promptly. Now we're having the same with FMLA because it encourages repeat clinic visits. The employer is the loser. And to the previous poster, yes, it is very true that the tighter your attendance policy, especially with the no-fault points systems, the greater your incidence of FMLA.
And, you do not want to get me started on lawyers who refer the patients (who have been in an accident) to doctors who will put down what the lawyer wants to hear.
Finally, there is an increase of requests for FMLA to care for suddenly sick parents (in another state) around Christmas and Easter time.
To Anne -
I agree with Don's comments about the abuse of FMLA. The intent of the law is NOT what it has become, at least for many employees. This job protection statute has become additional time off from work without regard to the employers' interests and gives the employer very little they can do to control absences. I have seen quite a bit of abuse of this law and am seeing more and more of what Don describes regarding time off from work. Granting intermittent FMLA is the worst. With the addition of the HIPAA Privacy Regulations, it has become even more difficult.
As far as trying to handle the abuse, we make them use up sick (for themselves only) and vacation time. It doesn't do much but if they have to waste vacation time on illness or appointments, it may deter some. Also, when I get notice of an absence (we use a time off form with hours missed) I log that absence and start noticing if absences are more frequent than they have been or should be according to the condition and doctor's info. We approve on specifics, from approximate number of appointments to number of days of incapacitation predicted because of the attendance policy. Employees will be written up or termed after three absences (including dr. appts), so managers must know specifically what is FMLA and what isn't. Very hard to manage, but I appreciate your feedback on the sinus infections.
A sinus infection may seem minor, but from the information provided, it appears that this employee is prone to bronchitis...which will have the ee out for maybe two weeks, instead of 3-5 days while the infection is getting under control.
It's hard when we KNOW that an ee is doing an end run around the rules...but most of us are not medical specialists. You could always ask for the ee to see another dr. at your expense, if you're feeling unsure about the certification...
we just have to pick our battles.
Also, we do not have any abuse of FMLA that I'm aware of even though we pay for up to 12 weeks of qualified leave. I'm sure it is related to our size (50 employees) and the culture of trust and respect that exists. Does anyone else have a similar situation?
My son unfortunately inherited my allergies too. He has been hospitalized because his blood oxygen count was too low. The first doctor diagnosed asthma, the second DR diagnosed allergies. Allergies can mimic all kinds of illness, colds, asthmas etc.
Allergies really can intefere with a person's productivity and quality of life.
Just wanted you all to see another's perspective.
Growing up - hay fever type allergies - not as much was known about it. I was constantly blowing my nose - it was either blow my nose or let the mucus embarrassingly drip out my nose. People were allways telling me I was gross. Then there was allways the swimming pool phenomena - as soon as you jump in the pool the flood gates to your nose open up!!! It is not something you can control and people make fun of you. (I grew up in Fla. and not swimming - not realistically an option) I could go on, and on.
Am I traumatized by it? No, I'm not trying to say that. Just that it does happen, and only recently has the public been understanding of what people with allergies go through. Only the past couple of years has there been so much advertising for Zyrtec, Clariden, etc.
(edit) x:-)
EDIT: Wait a second....that was a fiddle. I don't know any violin songs. x:D
xclap
I guess the point is that allergies can be serious and sometimes uncontrollable. Thankfully, kind researchers developed Zyrtec-D. I can now breathe and sound like the intelligent adult that I really am, insteady of a stuffy kid. Communication is much much easier!!!
The worst part...is that the symptoms may lead someone (a potential boss, maybe) to believe that an ee is sickly and likely to take a bunch of time off...or be unreliable. Just sends the wrong message!
This is an FMLA covered event and is probably one of those events that FMLA was designed to protect.
It does affect productivity each time an employee is absent, however, if the employee is a solid quality preformer it is easier to for the manager to deal with.
If an employee doesn't perform well when he or she is at work, it makes it harder for managers to be sensitive to them when there is an FMLA event. The managers then often approach HR to discipline those employees for attendance issues, when in fact, it may be work performance that's the real root of the problem.
I'm dealing with an issue like that today and have had to firmly advise a supervisor this morning to back off of issuing a warning for attendance related to one employee's current FMLA-protected leave and at the same time consider changing a different "favorite" employee to part time (from full time) for consistent low work hours (with medical cert.) after FMLA has long since expired.
Oh, what a beautiful morning,
Oh, what a beautiful day; . . .
Now, I'll wish you all a great week.
Anne -
I would love to echo what several of my fellow Forumites have expressed regarding the abuses of intermittent leave under FMLA. Out of our hourly workforce of about 250 employees, we have about 65 of them who have certified chronic serious health conditions. These range from migraines to gout, from asthma to severe menstrual cramps, from bipolar disorder to back pain. Once a condition is certified by a physician as "chronic", the employee no longer needs to miss more than three days for an absence to be considered under FMLA. Even patterns of absence (like every Sunday, the day before or after every holiday, etc.) haven't given us enough ammunition to successfully challenge intermittent leave's validity, and heaven knows we've tried.