Absence and Disability Management
WorkCare's advocacy-based absence management program combines the power of nurse care coordination with the technological resources of our web-enabled, real time communication tool – WorkLink™. This easy-to-use proprietary software system works in tandem with our nurse care coordinators to support the employees' return-to-work goal.
Our team is made-up of clinically focused, seasoned healthcare and risk management professionals that deploy customized early intervention treatment plans.
This cross-functional team approach ensures that employees receive the entire continuum of care-from onset of initial injury/illness to full recovery.
Our absence management team members include:
- Nurse care management/health advocates
- Consulting medical physicians
- Health & fitness coaches
- Support from credentialed occupational health providers
The ACOEM, Presley Reed and other industry standards help guide our service delivery standards along with our client’s health and safety goals.
FMLA Services
Few laws cause more frustration for employers than the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). With mounting paperwork and uncertainty due to conflicting laws, some employers succumb to employee demands for additional time off and work accommodations due to concerns over legal liability or misunderstanding of the scope and overlap of these laws.
WorkCare understands the needs of organizations with little available time and resources to focus on these issues, which is why we offer customized FMLA and ADA services designed to suit the needs of your organization.
Our board-certified staff physicians and leave analysts can help you:
- Develop policies and procedures that will ensure appropriate employee FML use and curb abuse.
- Authenticate your employees’ medical certification using the FMLA process for medical clarification.
- Arrange for 2nd and 3rd medical opinions with our national network of qualified medical professionals.
- Manage work-related injuries/ illnesses by providing expert medical opinion and return-to-work case management services.
- Provide red flag alerts for fraud (patterns of absence, evidence of moonlighting, etc.).
- Review employee medical documentation to verify ADA accommodation needs.
- Communicate FMLA and ADA rights afforded to employees.
- Untangle the FMLA and ADA overlaps.
- Manage leave challenges that result from complex chronic conditions.
- Avoid common FML mistakes and employ management controls to reduce administrative burden.
- Provide medical guidance on fitness for duty issues.
- Expedite the return-to-work process by clarifying return to work certificates and work restrictions.
Nurse Care Coordination
Our dedicated team of experienced, credentialed nurses provides a range of services to remove obstacles that prevent or delay the employee's return to work.
Nurses care coordinators typically intervene within the first three days of an employee health issue. This rapid response methodology provides a unique window of opportunity for setting expectations, educating, and directing care.
Early intervention combined with case management enables employers to more effectively manage employee absences.
Health Advocacy
Health advocates are professional nurses, wellness/health coaches or disability specialists that support on-site, integrated health programs. They provide employees with a one-stop-shop for all of their health related issues.
By working closely with employees, health advocates build relationships of trust that can be leveraged to guide injured/ill employee employees to the appropriate healthcare treatment. The presence of on-site health advocates is a key success factor for employees' participation in health and wellness activities.
Onsite nurses know and understand the corporate culture and its employees, and have learned to cultivate trust and acceptance within employee groups.
Our health advocates provide the following services:
- Help employees and their families navigate the healthcare system
- Coach employees on important questions to ask their doctor
- Answers wellness related questions and provide health education
- Direct employees to preventative health and wellness resources
- Facilitate employers' transitional duty program for occupational and non-occupational lost time
- Health Coaching
Promoting healthy living and lifestyle changes by providing support and guidance is a key function of the health advocate. This coaching is designed to help employees integrate and maintain improvements in personal health and work behavior. The most common areas of coaching include:
- Smoking cessation
- Blood pressure management
- Weight loss
- Healthy diet and exercise are
MindHealth
Embracing the concept of collaborative care, WorkCare has developed MindHealth - a new service aimed at better integrating psychiatric, psychological and medical services to help drive positive employee outcomes.
Under the direction of a licensed clinical psychologist, MindHealth works by providing peer-to-peer consults designed to educate treating physicians on the advantages of incorporating a return-to-work framework as part of their treatment plan. An added bonus is that our psychologists and clinicians provide the treating physician with tools to help better predict the employee leave period and guidelines for using objective methods to assess an employee’s work function status.
The benefits of MindHealth include:
- Ensures employee receives the appropriate level of care
- Improves communication between parties - employer, employee and provider
- Provides better monitoring of employee health status
- Establishes pro-active planning for returning the employee back to work
- Sets expectations with providers to ensure prevention needless disability is avoided.