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Insurance

Pay for workers’ comp evaluation?

06/11/2008
Q. We have an employee who has filed a workers’ compensation claim. Our attorneys have asked the employee to go to our insurance company’s doctor for an evaluation. This will keep the employee away from work the whole day. Do we have to pay the employee for going to the doctor, or may we classify it as a personal day? …

Wellness Rx: Help Employees Spend Less on Prescriptions

06/10/2008
Prescription drug costs account for a huge chunk of employer-provided health care insurance premiums—and those costs are rising fast. Don’t run the risk that your workers won’t fill needed prescriptions because they can’t afford to. They’ll stay healthier if you teach them how to hunt for bargains on prescribed drugs.

Michigan firm pays 100% for health care

06/06/2008
With 350 employees, the managers at Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber have custom-built a health care plan based on the staff’s needs. And it pays 100% of the premiums. “Of course it’s costing us money,” says HR Director Brenda Heerdt, “but we feel that the health of our employees is very important” …

Contractor’s employees rave about wellness program

06/06/2008
One year after Herndon, Va.-based government contractor GTSI started its wellness program, half of its 665 employees participate. And on a company survey, almost 100% of them described the organization as “more than just a place to work.” …

I was harassed and I quit! Now can I sue—Or get unemployment?

06/06/2008
Q. I found my working conditions to be intolerable because of the behavior of my male co-workers that I considered to be sexual harassing. I just did not have the energy to complain about the behavior and face the consequences, so I quit without telling my employer about the harassment. I am having trouble finding a new job, and now I am thinking I made a mistake. Will I be able to sue my employer for sexual harassment? Can I obtain unemployment insurance?

Court says liability insurer must cover employee defamation

05/30/2008
Good news for employers carrying various types of liability coverage: A Texas Court of Appeals has sided with an employer that attempted to collect on a liability policy after it lost a $1.75 million defamation judgment …

Continental Tire must fund VEBA

05/28/2008
Charlotte-based Continental Tire North America has agreed to pay $158 million into a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, to continue health care benefits for approximately 2,400 retirees and workers. The workers sued after Continental reduced retiree health care benefits …

An introduction to North Carolina Employment Security Law

05/28/2008
 The North Carolina Employment Security Law provides unemployment compensation benefits for some employees who lose their jobs. To qualify, unemployed workers must have registered for work and periodically report to an unemployment office. Occasionally eligibility disputes find their way into court …

$500 buys a lot of cigarettes

05/27/2008
Nobody really likes being reformed, and that can make administering corporate wellness programs tricky, as Whirlpool recently found out. The company suspended 39 workers at its Evansville plant after discovering they lied about being nonsmokers to get a $500 discount on health insurance …

After learning of possible serious medical condition, what are our legal obligations?

05/23/2008
Q. An employee told us he has a bad hernia. He wants to wait a couple months to have the operation, since it requires six weeks’ recovery. He does some lifting in his job. Yesterday, he had to go home early because he was in pain. Now that we are aware of his condition, what’s our liability? And what should we do?