November 2017
ACA and Wellness
This issue of @Work magazine provides updates about the current state of the Affordable Care Act and how employers will be impacted in 2018 and highlights programs and strategies for improving employee health and wellness.
Features
Promoting Employee Wellness Through Healthier Workplaces
Employers may hold the key to reducing employee health risks; through corporate wellness programs, employers can take aim at new health risks such as workplace stressors. Read more.
2018 Employer Healthcare Agenda
In 2018, understanding the current ACA environment for employers remains important, including compliance issues, making cost-efficient high-deductible health plans more attractive to employees, and concerns about the stability of ACA state health exchanges. Read more.
Spotlight Articles
Program Showcase: Correspondence & Compliance
Employee notifications and correspondence are a critical piece of any successful leave and disability administration program. In addition to apprising an employee of key steps needed to move forward with a leave request, notifications and their content serve a broader purpose — building a paper trail. Read more.
Compliance Makeover: Securing ADA Medical Data
Managing reasonable accommodation requests is complex. Regardless of the complexity or type of interactive process you enter, one thing is always essential — obtaining clear medical information, with the key word being “clear.” Read more.
Columns
Wrestling with ADA, FMLA, and Overtime: No Overtime as an ADA Accommodation
How do employers assess an employee’s request for no overtime as an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act? Here are the steps to follow. Read more.
Employer Onsite Medical Clinics: Improved Well-Being and Productivity
Onsite and near-site health clinics have steadily gained ground in recent years, increasing employee convenience and productivity, and at nearly the same cost as typical health plans. Is a clinic in your company’s future? Several factors may drive that decision. Read more.
SSDI Application Process: Are Your Employees Still Waiting?
Less than half of the SSDI claims submitted this year will be approved, and that number keeps decreasing year over year. Knowing the basics of the SSDI process can help you and your employees navigate through more effectively. Read more.
Ask the Accommodation Experts: Leave as an ADA Accommodation
Accommodation experts Jenny Haykin and Tom Sproger explain leave as an accommodation, including its limited role in the larger picture of ADA accommodations. Read more.
Absence Matters: Mental Health Stigma
“Stamp Out Stigma” has come to represent employers’ initiatives to reduce and eliminate the prejudice and social isolation experienced by those with mental health challenges. Read more.
Untangling the ADA, FMLA, WC Web: Workplace Mental Health
Increasingly, employers are seeking to understand and develop strategies to help their workforce deal with mental health issues, and for good reason. The CDC estimates that in any given year nearly 1 in 10 adults suffers from a depressive illness in the general population. Read more.
The Future of Leave Management: Training Your Managers – Part 2
Manager training programs can have a particularly significant impact on the employee leave experience. In addition to essential topics like employee rights, company policies, and procedures, a leave manager training program should also include topics outside the compliance box. Read more.
Piecing Together the Integration Puzzle: The Future of the ACA
Despite uncertainty, many ACA markets have shown signs that they are stabilizing, and others have overcome difficult challenges to ensure that coverage has been available throughout 2017. Savvy employers should take the following steps to prepare for 2018. Read more.
Overcoming the Disability Epidemic: Why Mental Health Parity Matters
Recently, mental health parity dodged a bullet, along with the Affordable Care Act. What happens next remains uncertain. Here’s why it matters to the nation, and why employers should care. Read more.
Departments
The CEO’s Desk: Employee Productivity With a Revised ACA
As integrated absence management professionals, we must always stand ready to defend the value of employee absence management and productivity programs. With efforts underway to replace the ACA with new health insurance options, employers will be required to shift their strategies once again. Read more.
DMEC News: November 2017
To extend the reach of our educational events and provide additional resources to more of our members, DMEC will be developing a new regional education model over the next year that will replace the current local chapter structure. Read more.
Compliance Memos: November 2017
The November 2017 compliance memos cover changes to the Affordable Care Act’s cost-sharing reduction payments, adjustments to federal cost-of-living rates, and natural disaster planning recommendations. Read more.
