Workplace Health Services Blog

Verifying "Serious Health Conditions" Under The Family And Medical Leave Act

HR professionals face tough challenges as they juggle their varied — and often conflicting — responsibilities. Management wants its facilities fully staffed with healthy, productive employees. But, those employees want time off for “serious health conditions.” And, did I mention that the HR people must comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the [...]

Employers' Concerns About Swine Flu

Swine Flu. The name has stuck, and so have the concerns. Officially known as the H1N1 virus, renewed outbreaks have people worried afresh about contracting the virus through public contact – whether at the mall or at the work place. We’re hearing a lot of questions coming from our onsite health clinics. Employers are asking our [...]

How Safeway is Cutting Employee Health Costs

Earlier this year, Safeway launched a series of wellness programs and health incentives designed to cut their overall employer health costs. The main idea behind the new program? Improving overall employee health by rewarding healthy behavior. Here’s how it works – Safeway is a self-insured employer, meaning they pay their employer health costs out of pocket [...]

Impact of Workplace Health Services on Adherence to Chronic Medications

Corporations who have employees who take chronic disease medications are often at risk of those employees not taking their medications properly, which may lead to increased absenteeism, presenteeism (where the employee is present, but not very productive), or increased health costs through emergency room visits. A recent study tested the association between onsite health clinics and [...]

Negative Healthcare Changes I Have Seen Because of Technology

There’s no denying that advances in technology have often been a good thing when it comes to health care. But is there also downside? With the advent of the internet and computer technology, more and more jobs are completely sedentary, requiring employees to spend eight or more hours per day sitting in front of a screen. [...]

How Employers Can Cope with FMLA Issues

The FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) is an incredibly complex, yet powerful Act that both protects employees’ rights and privacy when it comes to their healthcare. However, because of these protections and privacy rights there are two major issues that can come up for an employer. As a result, the issues could create headaches for [...]

Addressing Employee Concerns About Privacy and Onsite Health Providers

Thanks to the FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), employee patients are entitled to the highest level of privacy when it comes to their healthcare records. Typically, when an employer builds an onsite healthcare clinic or hires an onsite healthcare provider, there is concern amongst the employee population that [...]

Testing Resources with a Mobile Medical Van

There’s a new van in town. It’s like a cousin of the RV or library on wheels, but it’s got a medical degree — it’s the mobile medical van of Workplace Health Solutions, a division of Clarian Health. We use the van for medical surveillance exams. When companies need to do health testing, like hearing exams, [...]

Air Sampling Help for OSHA Audits

Do you have an OSHA audit coming up? Maybe you're dealing with a current OSHA complaint and are worried about a potential audit? Or perhaps you're unsure about your air sampling results and what they mean?

Regulatory Compliance or Policy Compliance – We Can Help

"Compliance" comes up a lot in workplace healthcare and, unfortunately, it's often misused. One type of compliance deals with government regulations while the other attends to internal company policies. Let me explain...