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Workplace Situations

New Paid Parental Leave Plan is Enacted at MCN

by Jen Jenkins, Market Analyst

We are beyond excited about a unique policy recently enacted here at MCN and we wanted to take a moment to share it with you. Since its inception, our company has understood and fully appreciated the importance of creating an atmosphere that supports a healthy work-life balance; this new policy adds to that sentiment. We hope that moving forward this will have a strong, positive impact on our team and continue to make MCN a great place to work.

This policy is a paid parental leave plan for full-time employees that provides bonding time when a new parent returns to work after the birth or adoption of a child. The plan provides 5 days of pay for 4 days of work for a total of 20 weeks flexibly applied during the first year after return to work. This shorter work week will help allow the new parent time bond with their child and enjoy a less abrupt return to full-time employment.

Our CEO and founder Brian Grant is a father of four himself and he wanted to offer a benefit that does more than pay for time-off that new parents generally take with or without pay. Brian notes:

“Over the years MCN staff have had babies, taken some time off that is generally a combination of earned leave and unpaid time-off, and then returned full-time to work. That is an abrupt change for a new parent. We wanted to try something different; paying a parent upon their return for full-time work while giving them some additional time to bond with their new baby.”

One new parent, a father who will benefit from the policy, said: “This is really a great opportunity for me to make sure that I can hit the ground running and see my son and catch great moments when they happen.” Another employee whose own family is complete commented: “What I like about it is that though it won’t apply to me directly, we’ve worked so hard to establish a real sense of team here. This allows people to stay part of the team and know that their needs are recognized during a major transition period in their lives.”

DNA Dilemmas

by Jen Jenkins, Market Analyst, MCN

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, contains the genetic blueprint that distinguishes each and every human being. Since its advent in 1985, and with a 99% accuracy rate, DNA testing has emerged as the most reliable physical evidence available, particularly at crime scenes. The TV show CSI popularized the science behind forensic testing but over the years it has also become widely accessible for many other purposes. Disturbingly, as the tests have become more accurate and less expensive, we are also seeing evidence of discrimination that has arisen due to having this type of information so readily available.

Laws have indeed come about to specifically protect people from discrimination due to genetic testing. The most newsworthy example of this was seven years ago when Congress prohibited employers and insurers from discriminating against people with genes that showed an increased risk for developing diseases that may be costly to treat. A more recent article in The New York Times, “‘Devious Defecator’ Case Tests Genetics Law,” is an interesting, albeit bizarre, example of the serious issues and concerns surrounding this topic. Two men accused of defecating publicly outside a warehouse where they worked were subjected to a DNA test in order to compare their DNA with that of the feces. Both men, fearing the possibility of losing their jobs, agreed to the testing and were subsequently cleared. Following the debacle the men sued the company on the grounds that the genetics law in place made it illegal for the employer to have requested or required genetic information under any circumstances.

“Anyone in the future thinking about using a genetic test in ways that can embarrass or harm an individual will have to confront the fact that it violates federal law,” stated a Georgetown University law professor regarding the case. Nevertheless, although the United States justice system has many existing laws when it comes to awarding damages for other types of discrimination, there are no laws or guidelines in place specifying how judges may award justly for discrimination due to genetic testing misconduct.

Careers with the Highest Suicide Rates

In the US, suicide results in roughly 36,000 deaths per year. And since 2009 suicide has been the leading cause of injury-related deaths. A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine analyzes suicide trends in the workplace, identifying specific occupations with high incidents.

Occupations with the highest rates?

  • Law enforcement officers (5.3 per million)
  • Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (5.1 per million)
  • Installation, maintenance, and repair (3.3 per million)

This study compared workplace versus non-workplace suicides in the U.S. between 2003 and 2010. During that time period there were 1700 workplace suicides (a rate of 1.5 per 1 million) with an overall US suicide rate of 144.1 per 1 million. The study used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injury (CFOI) database.

  • The workplace suicide rate was 15 times higher for men than for women, and almost four times higher for workers aged 65-74 than for workers 16-24.

Why the high rates in these particular categories? One hypothesis suggests an increased risk based upon availability and access to lethal means. This would include access to pharmaceuticals for medical doctors and firearms for law enforcement officers.

This might help explain the higher rates of death among members of the second two categories noted (i.e. farmers and maintenance workers) who would routinely work with heavy, potentially dangerous equipment, and would also face workplace stressors such as social isolation, higher rates of chronic injuries and pain, a high risk of financial loss, and chronic exposure to toxic chemicals including many types of pesticides and solvents.

“This upward trend of suicides in the workplace underscores the need for additional research to understand occupation-specific risk factors and develop evidence-based programs that can be implemented in the workplace,” concluded Dr. Hope M. Tiesman, epidemiologist with the Division of Safety Research at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and lead investigatory for the study.

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A Disease of Time

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a psychiatric disorder, the fourth-most-common one in America.  Over a decade into the global war on terror, PTSD purportedly afflicts as many as 30 percent of the conflict’s veterans. And the disorder’s reach extends far beyond the armed forces.

David J. Morris, who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2007, provides us with a new understanding in his recently released The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD, he notes, is “in a manner of speaking, a way of institutionalizing moral outrage.”

From Morris’s website is a brief summary of The Evil Hours: Drawing on his own battles with post-traumatic stress, David J. Morris — a war correspondent and former Marine — has written a humane, unforgettable book…Through interviews with people living with PTSD; forays into the rich scientific, literary, and cultural history of the condition; and memoir, Morris crafts a moving work that will speak not only to those with PTSD and their loved ones, but to all of us struggling to make sense of an anxious and uncertain time.

David Morris notes:

I first got interested in PTSD when I read a newspaper article about how some Iraq veterans felt “poisoned” by the war, as if it had fundamentally altered their existential position in the world. I am fascinated by this moral component of survivorship—how events in life can freeze us in time, seeming to render us unfit for the everyday world. This is essentially the same question confronted by Ishmael at the end of Moby Dick, as he looks out on the vast sea from Queequeg’s coffin: How does one live in the aftermath of the impossible?

The Evil Hours has been widely and quite favorably reviewed, from “an eye-opening investigation of war’s casualties” (Kirkus Reviews)  to “Well-integrated autobiographical elements make this remarkable work highly instructive and readable. (Publishers Weekly) Read more…

The Top 8 Jobs with the Highest Injury Rates

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Four of the top eight are medical workers: orderlies, nursing assistants, personal care aids, and registered nurses.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 35,000 nursing employees are injured each year severely enough that they miss work.

Some hospitals have report that they have reduced lifting injuries among nursing staff by up to 80 percent — using an approach often called “safe patient handling.” They use special machinery to lift patients, similar to motorized hoists that factory workers use to move heavy parts. The hospitals also conduct intensive training among the staff.

Yet the majority of the nation’s hospitals have not taken similar action. The injuries are often so severe that they’re career-ending, a problem compounded by the fact that many of those injured are relatively young. To help address the problem, on Jan. 1, 2012, the Hospital Patient and Health Care Worker Injury Protection Act went into effect in California. This NPR article follows several injured medical workers and their stories.

The Age of Mindfulness

A quick Google of “mindfulness” pulled up about 121,000,000 results (0.28 seconds), from Harvard Business Review to the Seattle Seahawks.

Mindfulness is not meditation per se, (though it may incorporate meditation techniques and has some origins in Buddhist teachings) but rather includes many ways of being involving slowing down, awareness, and stress reduction. It includes a set of tools, techniques and exercises to facilitate paying more attention to one’s surroundings and being here in the moment.

It can be as simple and rewarding as driving to work in a mindful way, letting the traffic around you just be, experiencing the moment rather than being upset at that careless pedestrian or person not using their turn signal. It may require giving yourself the time to not be hurried — by leaving a few minutes early for example. It is relevant to business in that a number of businesses are providing the opportunity for staff to be exposed to it in the context of wellness.

Which brings us back to the Seahawks, an excellent approach to coaching and life to ponder as the Super Bowl draws near. “Lotus pose on two,” published by ESPN during last year’s pre-season reviews the process of change and mindfulness approach brought by coach Pete Carroll. The article ends with this quote, one that those of us in Seattle are particularly enjoying about now: “Man, that’s just what I was thinking,” the coach said. “Let’s not just win one Super Bowl. Let’s win multiple.”

Emergence of the Trauma Industry

This article from The New York Times focuses on a particular criminal ex-cop. But reference is made to many other defendants involved in this particular crime, of “feigning mental illness” and invoking the 9-11 attacks as a source of psychological scarring. These crimes did not take place in a vacuum. They occurred in a social context where the defendants, many sworn officers, believed they could get away with it, and likely saw themselves as damaged and entitled.

The experience of trauma and even the development of a diagnosis such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder does not correlate with a person being damaged or disabled. Trauma is part of the human condition, and in most cases the victims adjust, move on, and support themselves and their families – at times with the help of some therapy. Men and women have gone to war, and returned to productive civilian lives. A bureaucracy of entitlement for compensation and pensions based upon ones experiences, rather than one’s actual impairment, did not exist.

Only in recent years have we observed an emergence of a trauma industry, where both individuals and clinicians all too frequently appear to correlate an unfortunate experience or experiences with damage. The ability to obtain compensation likely has driven this process and outcome.

Those who die in performing their jobs or who sustain serious injury warrant eternal respect and honor. What of those who ride on the coat-tails of dramatic news, and do their sometimes unpleasant and highly stressful jobs? Has the human condition and the nature of trauma and war changed fundamentally in the past couple decades to explain or justify the increased level of diagnoses and compensation for trauma-related experiences?

The article reflects some who were caught. In the culture of cynical entitlement that appears to be reflected in the article, what remains unrecognized? Does one really believe that this case and the Long Island Railroad abuses cover and resolve the core issues?

Veterans Administration Wait Lists — What Can We Learn from This?

Brian L. Grant MD

This editorial from the Seattle Times by Roger Stark raises a number of issues worth discussing. The recent controversy about the VA has been long in the making. It is about culture and corruption. But it also allows us an opportunity to look more closely at the fundamentals of the VA, ask tough questions and perhaps make some basic changes.

There is a lack of understanding about the VA and people tend to mix up and confuse issues. And the reverential manner with which it is spoken by most elected officials makes it difficult to have meaningful conversations.

My time in the VA is quite dated, going back to several rotations as a resident physician in the 70’s and 80’s. Back then I was struck by a number of observations:

  • Most admissions and patients were there for conditions that had nothing to do with military service. And a number of them were receiving permanent pensions because their conditions were identified in the course of service. Chronic Schizophrenia comes to mind. We now know that this is a biologic condition, not environmental, coincidentally becoming symptomatic in late adolescence and early adulthood when individuals may be in military service. If one lasted long enough in service, an early discharge and a lifetime of benefits would result, though the disease would have developed irrespective of service. Other medical admissions were often older Veterans with the usual maladies of age and lifestyle that one encounters in any hospital, such as heart and lung diseases, often flowing from lifestyle issues like tobacco use and diet.
  •  These hospitals were large institutions, often in the same vicinity as other facilities and clinics that offer excellent care options.
  • The staff were of high quality and some, like the Seattle VA, were teaching institutions affiliated with an excellent medical school, and helped train medical students and residents. They cared about their patients.

Setting aside the current controversy, we should ask several questions about the VA and where it should fit in the US Healthcare system:

  • What is the social contract between the VA and Veterans? Who should it serve and why? What is the distinction between those injured in the course of duty and those not? Should those who have served but have no injuries from their service be entitled to free health care via the VA system?
  • Does the current VA disability system work and when should an injury translate into economic benefits vs. treatment for the condition?
  •  What are the moral hazard and political implications of tying an injury to compensation? How does compensation muddy diagnoses like PTSD and traumatic brain injury?
  •  Assuming care is owed or committed, is a free-standing government run system the best way to accomplish this? What are the alternatives?

Readers of this blog know that the current healthcare system is not defended in terms of its economics. It is expensive and costs inflate far in excess of other countries with quality systems or the overall US economy. And there are inherent problems in a system where doing and procedures are rewarded while prevention and thinking is not. Furthermore the system is one where the patient is generally ignorant and disengaged on costs and treatment options and believes or acts as if the details and cost of care is an entitlement owed to them by their employer or government. This trend may be changing as cost sharing via copays and deductibles is growing under many policies. Most of us spend more time shopping for a TV set than a medical procedure or hospitalization that will cost 20-50 times as much or more, because with the TV and other personal expenditures, our interests lie in getting the best value for price.

Once we decide which Veterans to serve, could this not be better accomplished without a massive VA treatment bureaucracy? We have perfectly workable if imperfect government payment schemes including Medicare that can easily be ported to the VA and allow eligible Veterans to receive care from the facilities of their choice in the community.

Centers of excellence providing care for conditions unique to combat could be formed in partnership with high quality medical schools and research institutions for conditions such as amputations and combat-related PTSD.

Current VA resources and staff could be re-deployed into the private sector, where shortages exist presently and where demand would increase with Veterans entering the same system.

Is the current system inherently flawed and rather than focusing on current corruption, are bigger questions needing to be asked and answered?

Benefits suspended for Long Island Railroad retirees

MCNTalk previously discussed the abuse of the disability system at the Long Island Rail Road. With this follow-up we see hundreds having their benefits cut off and reference is made to one doctor going to jail. While we have not followed this story closely, the article begs a number of questions:

  • Who else if anything was held to account for this glaring abuse? Reference is made to another defendant in the case going to trial soon? How many defendants are there?
  • For the Railroad Disability Board to not know or have reason to suspect abuse long ago is not credible. Is the leadership still in place? Ultimately the Board had to approve each application and there were individuals working there along with management who were fully aware of the nature of the claims. They were fully capable of using their heads to review and challenge. How many of the L.I.R.R. applicants had their claims reviewed and denied? What about other Railroad employees at other companies? Are their claims being similarly approved?
  • Are managers at the L.I.R.R. who were involved in this travesty still working there and are any of them facing charges?

Lastly, let’s look to the 600 retirees losing their benefits. In the original Times article, we note the following:

Virtually every career employee — as many as 97 percent in one recent year — applies for and gets disability payments soon after retirement, a computer analysis of federal records by The New York Times has found. Since 2000, those records show, about a quarter of a billion dollars in federal disability money has gone to former L.I.R.R. employees, including about 2,000 who retired during that time.

The L.I.R.R.’s disability rate suggests it is one of the nation’s most dangerous places to work. Yet in four of the last five years, the railroad has won national awards for improving worker safety.

“Short of the gulag, I can’t imagine any work force that would have a so-to-speak 90 percent disability attrition rate,” said Glenn Scammel, long one of Capitol Hill’s top experts on railroads. “That defies both logic and experience.”

Said Dr. J. Mark Melhorn, co-editor of a book on occupational disability published by the American Medical Association: “No one has a rate that high — that just doesn’t happen.”

Clearly those who applied for and received disability included a significant number of individuals who were engaged in fraud and theft from the government – from all of us. What is their punishment and account? To lose future benefits! How many if any will face prosecution and restitution? Just because everyone does it does not make it right. These individuals were not forced to apply for benefits and they were not forced to see particular doctors. They applied for benefits and most were fully aware of the scam they were engaged in.

Top 10 Reasons for Disability Claims

Ever wonder what the most common reasons for short- and long-term disability claims are?  This posting at Employee Benefits News.com provides a quick summary, based on data collected for 2012. Perhaps surprisingly, cancer is the leading cause of long-term disability claims and ranks no. 6 on the list of causes for short-term-disability.  Back problems comes in second, accounting for 15% of long-term disability claims.

“Most people who have been diagnosed with cancer are very motivated to get back to work,” says Kristin Tugman, senior director of health and productivity at Unum. “It helps create a sense of normalcy and control at a time when people often feel understandably overwhelmed.” Read more…