Frequently Asked Questions
1. In a nutshell, how would you describe Occu-Med’s service?
All Occu-Med clients and most potential clients recognize the obvious value of pre-placement and fitness-for-duty medical evaluations. However, the more subtle value of many of the aspects of this service may be difficult to observe. In addition to reviewing medical information in relation to the essential duties of a job, and offering a legally-defensible placement, fitness-for-duty or return-to-work recommendation, our service also involves: a) the scheduling of medical examinations with a trained and conveniently located medical provider, b) “harvesting” medical exams at their earliest possible completion date and time to eliminate delays in placement, c) communicating with applicants for scheduling the appointments and for follow-up requirements from medical information provided during the exams, and d) reviewing clinic invoices and making payments for medical exams performed (clinic invoices are inaccurate significantly more frequently than they are accurate). Occu-Med has developed a management service to handle all aspects of employment medical examinations for its clients. This service is called QA2 (pronounced Q-A-Two).
2. How would you summarize the benefits of Occu-Med’s QA2 service?
QA2 and the various ancillary services included in the program were developed in response to several less than optimal aspects of the post-offer/pre-placement and fitness-for-duty / return-to-work medical examination processes being managed by our clients in which we were playing only a minor role.
This program includes:
1) Maintaining a network of qualified and trained medical providers and medical specialists for necessary exams;
2) Job analysis and preparation of Job Profiles and Medical Examination Profiles for all job classes analysed;
3) Orientation of client staff in the legal/medical/risk management and human resources aspects of our service;
4) The scheduling and “harvesting” (tracking) of pre-placement medical exams;
5) Organization and management of return-to-work and fitness-for-duty exams;
6) The evaluation of medical information in relation to the essential duties of jobs in a legally defensible manner (EXAMQA®);
7) Communicating directly with applicants to obtain the confidential medical information that is needed for clearance for a particular job (RDQA);
8) Development of “Occu-Panels” with a national laboratory that allows for the selection of only those tests for the blood chemistry panel that are compliant with state and federal law for each job class; and
9) Bill review for the medical exams performed by clinics.
3. How does Occu-Med’s service differ from that of a typical occupational medicine clinic?
Occu-Med’s utilizes the services of other occupational (and, occasionally, internal) medicine clinics for the very specific purposes of a) collecting information about an applicant’s or an employee’s medical history, and b) identifying any current medical conditions or physical limitations that could interfere with the performance of the job. However, the physicians performing these examinations are not asked to provide an opinion about the appropriateness of permitting the examinee to work in the job for which he or she is being examined. That medical-legal placement decision, which must be made based upon adequate and accurate job information and a thorough understanding of employment regulations (both federal and state) in addition to the medical information obtained from the medical examination, is made by Occu-Med. The type and level of medical expertise necessary to make the placement recommendation is beyond that which is typically available in an occupational medicine clinic.
And, that (in a nutshell) is the difference between Occu-Med and a typical clinic providing the same service. Occu-Med has gained a thorough understanding of employment laws and regulations over its 30 years of providing these services, and we understand the importance of having a thorough understanding of the physical and environmental factors that the employee will face in the workplace before a placement recommendation is made. And, because we do thoroughly understand both the law and the requirements of the job in question, we are able to confidently permit placement of applicants and employees who are able to safely perform the essential duties of the job with or without reasonable accommodation, and we are able to recommend (just as confidently) the non-placement of individuals who are unable to safely perform the essential duties of the job (again, with or without reasonable accommodation).
4. How does Occu-Med’s service differ from other national networks of medical clinics?
Occu-Med is not, itself, a national network of medical clinics. Occu-Med has assembled a national network of medical providers, many of which are clinics belonging to other national companies, to provide very specific and directed services to us for the benefit of our clients. We differ from other business models in this service arena in that we do not ask the physician to provide service beyond their capabilities or training, such as the rendering of a placement recommendation. As discussed above, medical information alone (without a thorough understanding of employment law nor an adequate and accurate job assessment) is not an adequate basis upon which to render a placement recommendation.
While Occu-Med offers the convenience and consistency of “close to home” medical examinations through our international network of medical providers, our company also provides the value of risk reduction by understanding how to handle applicants or employees with pre-existing medical conditions or physical limitations that could pre-dispose them to injury when placed.
5. Why does Occu-Med’s service produce so much more value than that produced by most of its competitors?
Occu-Med’s goals are different. Whereas the normal “physical” is understood to be a very general look at an applicant’s health status at the time of employment, Occu-Med’s “post-offer, pre-placement medical evaluation” or “fitness-for-duty evaluation” is a very focused investigation into whether an applicant or employee is able to safely perform the essential duties of the job. Further, Occu-Med’s service continues past the initial analysis into such ancillary matters as reasonable accommodation, employment agreements and continued medical monitoring.
Medical providers without a functioning legal support team are fearful of Medically Disqualifying any applicants. Clearly, the possibility of a lawsuit is real when an applicant is denied a job that has been offered subject to passing a medical evaluation. And, if a physician / medical examiner is not knowledgeable about the laws governing these actions, and if he or she is not fully aware of how an applicant’s functional limitations relate to the specific requirements of the job, there is a tendency to err on the side of placement.
6. How would you describe Occu-Med’s philosophy?
Occu-Med’s philosophy for the past 30 years, unfailingly, has been to differentiate ourselves by the provision of services that address real needs, such as workplace injuries. We hold ourselves to the very highest standard possible in the provision of Quality work. We produce real and substantial value in the provision of a service where such value is, typically, low. Our goal is to customize our work so that any employer can receive the greatest benefit from our mutual efforts together.
7. Why is Job Analysis important to Occu-Med’s service?
Adequate and accurate job information is the cornerstone of Occu-Med’s service. Without this information it is virtually impossible to determine whether applicants and employees with various medical conditions and physical limitations can perform the essential functions of their jobs safely. Further, without appropriate job information it would not be possible to construct a medical examination that could be certain to be job related and consistent with business necessity, as required by law. And, finally, any analysis of reasonable accommodation must be directly and specifically related to the requirements of the job.
Occu-Med performs job analysis for each job class included in our service using a methodology perfected over 30 years while analyzing more than 60,000 job classes.
8. How does Occu-Med avoid HIPAA complaints?
Occu-Med assures that all private medical information transmitted is subject to an appropriately executed Authorization for Release of Information from the Medical Record form. Only the medical information authorized is reviewed and only authorized recipients will be provided the authorized medical information during the period of time that the authorization specifies.
9. Many medical providers do not recommend medically disqualifying applicants due to fear of lawsuits brought for discrimination against people with disabilities. Why is Occu-Med confident that its placement recommendations will not be challenged?
Occu-Med has made more than a half million placement recommendations over a 30-year period, and the number of challenges to our recommendations is extremely small. This would not be such an accomplishment for most providers performing pre-placement screening, since most of them never recommend medically disqualifying anyone. However, Occu-Med’s recommendations for safety and very physically demanding job classes have consistently included more than 6% who, after individualized assessment and consideration of reasonable accommodation, were not placed.
Further, even with the high volume of placement recommendations made by Occu-Med, many years typically pass between challenges of discrimination brought against our clients due to an Occu-Med recommendation. Our confidence rests in experience and our track record.
10. If challenges are made, why is Occu-Med confident of its ability to successfully defend such challenges?
Occu-Med has assisted its clients in successfully defending each and every challenge made by an applicant or employee resulting from an Occu-Med recommendation. When a challenge is lodged, the agency or employer is provided a “second bite at the apple” in that there is an opportunity to re-assess whatever information has been presented with the challenge. The employer may determine during this process to accept the newly presented information, may determine that suggested accommodations are reasonable, or may proceed more confidently with the medical disqualification. Remember, before this challenge ever comes about, the applicant or employee has already been provided with both an individualized assessment of his or her ability to safely perform the specific essential duties of the job and an interactive meeting to determine whether any available accommodations for the applicant or employee are reasonable.
11. How quickly can Occu-Med provide a placement recommendation following a medical exam?
Usually, Occu-Med can provide a placement recommendation within minutes of receipt of a complete exam. Our process of exam review proceeds as follows: An exam is usually “harvested” at its completion due date. (This means that an Occu-Med staff member is tracking all outstanding medical exams that we have scheduled. ) When the exam is received, it is reviewed to determine whether the proper / requested medical tests were all completed (and, for those that are often performed improperly, staff determines that the tests have been properly performed). If the exam is incomplete, missing components are immediately requested. If the exam is complete, it is reviewed on the same day as it is received (usually within an hour) if it arrives by 4 PM PST. A written report is sent (usually by email) to the employer on the same day.
12. How does Occu-Med assist its clients in their reasonable accommodation analyses?
When an applicant for employment is not able to safely perform the essential duties of the job class for which a conditional offer of employment has been tendered, Occu-Med participates with the employer and, as appropriate, the applicant in the analysis of whether there are any accommodations that would permit the applicant to be placed. Then, for any of the possible accommodations, Occu-Med assists the employer in evaluating whether these accommodations are reasonable or, in the alternative, would impose an undue hardship on the employer. Occu-Med then prepares a report documenting the decision reached by the employer.
For employees, Occu-Med also assists the employer in analyzing whether there exists any other job classes into which the employee could be placed, considering the employee’s skills, knowledge and abilities in addition to the availability of such a job opening.
13. Can you provide any case studies documenting cost savings through the use of the Occu-Med System?
Our clients have provided us with many such studies over the years, but the most dramatic was with a manufacturing company (airbags for automobiles) with over 1500 employees that had been spending more than $1 million per year on workers’ compensation claims with 90% of the injuries occurring to employees with less than one year on the job. After three years of use of Occu-Med’s services, these same claims were reduced to just over $200,000.
The Risk Manager responsible for bringing Occu-Med to that company has now repeated that experience with two other major companies, with both experiencing significant (if not quite so dramatic) cost reductions.
We have received similar results from internal studies conducted by a university’s small animal laboratory, a wild animal park, a small chain of hospitals, a large defense contractor and many governmental agencies.