Totally disabled but 2nd job?
kmaries
29 Posts
Hello all!
I am unsure of where to post this scenario so I am going to post here and in the benefits forum.
The situation is this:
An employee has been out of work on a leave due to radiation and chemotherapy treatment. The physician has indicated that she is completely incapacitated. She exhausted FMLA in 2003 as we are on a rolling calendar year, but we have extended her a "personal leave" for the time she is out. She has been out since January 2, 2004 and not expected to return until March. She is a salaried employee that receives "salary continuation" for the time she is considered ill/disabled. This pays full pay and benefits for up to 90 days.
It came to our attention by a co-worker that she is "moonlighting" at another clinic doing work on Mondays. Her supervisor followed up by calling the clinic and finding out that indeed she is. We do not have a non-compete policy and doing work like this is okay in our organization. I contacted the employee and she admitted that yes she is working 2-4 hours for this other clinic while she is out on disability. We talked about her coming back to her position working part time and she indicated that her physician would not allow her to do that at this time. Her regular position is too stressful and he thought she was doing better overall with just working at the smaller clinic and stood by his March return to our organization.
I am at a loss, I don't know where to go with this one? I am considering a second opinion, but because we are a healthcare organization it is frowned upon to second guess our own physicians.
She is being paid by this other clinic while at the same time being paid full time disability here? Can or should I require her to pay back the difference?
Any help or anyone that has dealt with a situation where a person has a second job please help! I have never had this happen, but I know I will run into it again!
Thank you - Kris
I am unsure of where to post this scenario so I am going to post here and in the benefits forum.
The situation is this:
An employee has been out of work on a leave due to radiation and chemotherapy treatment. The physician has indicated that she is completely incapacitated. She exhausted FMLA in 2003 as we are on a rolling calendar year, but we have extended her a "personal leave" for the time she is out. She has been out since January 2, 2004 and not expected to return until March. She is a salaried employee that receives "salary continuation" for the time she is considered ill/disabled. This pays full pay and benefits for up to 90 days.
It came to our attention by a co-worker that she is "moonlighting" at another clinic doing work on Mondays. Her supervisor followed up by calling the clinic and finding out that indeed she is. We do not have a non-compete policy and doing work like this is okay in our organization. I contacted the employee and she admitted that yes she is working 2-4 hours for this other clinic while she is out on disability. We talked about her coming back to her position working part time and she indicated that her physician would not allow her to do that at this time. Her regular position is too stressful and he thought she was doing better overall with just working at the smaller clinic and stood by his March return to our organization.
I am at a loss, I don't know where to go with this one? I am considering a second opinion, but because we are a healthcare organization it is frowned upon to second guess our own physicians.
She is being paid by this other clinic while at the same time being paid full time disability here? Can or should I require her to pay back the difference?
Any help or anyone that has dealt with a situation where a person has a second job please help! I have never had this happen, but I know I will run into it again!
Thank you - Kris
Comments
They physician that put her out on leave (or at least provided the doucmentaitn that she needed leave form your clinic)is one of your own physicians.
Did he or she do that as part of his or her responsiblity as your employee (to assess an emplyee's ability to perform the job), or did he do that as a "private" physician for the employee
even though he is an emplyee working for you as well?
It is possible based upon the medicla opnion is that an emplyee is not able to work for one employer but may take another job with another employer. And that is exactly what her treating physican, who happens to be your emplyee also, saying. And as you note, your employer doesn't do second opinions if the physician is alos emplyed by your company (too bad but I do understand their position -- I too work in a healthcare agency).
If the other job is doing the same duties as the job she would be doing at your company I would certainly get a second opinion.
If it is not, then you could pass it off to a job that is less stressful independent of the environment of your clinic. Employees who go on medicla leave are sometimes not able to do the job at that point with their empleyr but may be able to do another job with another employer. That's part of what the treating physician has to evaluate.
If it is the former, what the physician is really saying is that the job isn't the problem right now, its the management and atmosphere of your clinic.
You're just bheind the 8-ball because of the unusual limitation and the company's policy of not gettng second opinions on their physician employee-imposed restrictions.
Gee, what is the company going to do when the employee files an Industrial injury claim and her physician -- your employee -- says the same thing. Are you guys going to have your TPA fight it?
Make sure that there is NO OTHER connection on the job between your physician employee and the employee on leave (and I'm not talking just affairs, but is there some interaction between the two on the job. You may think she does not know her physican also works for the same company she does, but she may.
I have checked it out and haven't been able to find any other connection between the employee and our physician.
What I did gather from the employee is that she is doing less stressful work and that the environment is part of the problem.
I am meeting with the directors and medical directors today, but I think that we are going "blind eye" this one since we do not have a salary continuation policy and we do permit "moonlighting". I will post with our decision later.