Tag Archives: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Podcast: ‘What The Health?’ While You Were Celebrating …

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https://khn.org/news/podcast-what-the-health-while-you-were-celebrating/?utm_campaign=KFF-2018-The-Latest&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=59811229&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–JERFINvucriGGpU1rflJEeJxuQPVDm8Wxcl7b-PGXeAoVUch8Oz-J5zdRyTzl09wIqr9zHKJO6Lrp-P6xvIdaGh3oKQ&_hsmi=59811229

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The year in health policy has already begun: The Trump administration Thursday released a long-awaited regulation aimed at making it easier for small businesses and others to form “association health plans.” Now advocates and opponents will be able to weigh in with more specific recommendations.

Meanwhile, in December, the health policy focus was on the tax bill and its repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s “individual mandate” penalty for most people who don’t have health insurance. But some recent key court decisions could reshape the benefits millions of people receive as part of their health coverage.

This week’s “What the Health?” guests are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times.

They discuss these topics, as well as the prospects for pending health legislation on Capitol Hill.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

  • The Trump administration’s decision to expand association health plans faces a number of obstacles, including the lack of good oversight in many states and the poor track record of many past plans.
  • Consumer advocates fear that growth of association plans could leave many consumers without adequate benefits because some plans will not cover the same essential benefits that Obamacare plans guarantee. They also are concerned that healthy customers will migrate to the new plans and leave the ACA’s marketplace plans with an abundance of enrollees who are ill.
  • The prospects of the bill to stabilize the individual insurance market sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) appear to be dimming.
  • Two federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration rule to change the ACA’s contraception mandate. The decisions, though, are not based on the policy but on faulty rule-making.
  • In another highly watched court case, a federal judge has ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has until 2019 to set new rules on what employers can require of workers in their wellness programs.

50 Essentia Health workers fired for refusing flu vaccine

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https://www.hrdive.com/news/50-essentia-health-workers-fired-for-refusing-flu-vaccine/511593/

Dive Brief:

  • Essentia Health terminated 50 employees for refusing to get the flu vaccination, reports the Star Tribune. Hundreds of other workers agreed to be vaccinated after the Duluth, Minnesota-based healthcare system threatened to fire them if they refused.
  • The new policy requires all employees to get vaccinated to protect patients, Dr. Rajesh Prabhu, Essentia’s chief patient safety officer and an infectious disease specialist, told the Tribune. He said severely ill patients are more susceptible to complications and death from the flu, which is why the need to vaccinate employees is greater.
  • The Tribune says three unions oppose the new policy, which covers 15 hospitals in the system and 75 clinics. The United Steelworkers, which represents some employees, failed to get a court injunction to block the terminations.

The American Hospital Association​ (AHA), along with the National Business Group on Health and the American Academy of Family Physicians, strongly supports vaccinations to prevent the spread of the flu. The AHA backs mandatory patient safety policies that require workers to get flu vaccinations or wear hygienic masks when coming in contact with patients during the flu season.

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that less than 45.6% of Americans got flu shots during the 2015 to 2016 flu season. According to the CDC, some people don’t think the flu vaccination is effective, while others don’t think they’ll come down with the flu or think the side effects will be worse than the disease. Other workers might be eligible for a medical or religious exemption.

Employees routinely come to work ill, spreading infections to coworkers. Some 80% of employees came to work sick last year based on findings from Staple Business Advantage’s cold and flu survey. The cost of the flu alone is  $10.4 billion in medical expenses and, for employees, $16.3 billion in lost earnings each year.

Healthcare statistics would seem to support the argument for mandatory flu vaccinations. However, legal considerations come into play. States like New York allow employers to have blanket mandatory flu vaccination policies, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is against mandatory policies. Employers will need to pay attention to local and state law before making any such policies of their own.