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A Northeast giftware and collectable company with 2,200 employees. Multiple sites throughout
the U.S. include manufacturing, warehouse, distribution and retail stores. Some sites are
unionized. Prior to Work & Well, medical leaves handled by corporate and site benefits personnel.
Work & Well handles all non work-related medical leaves for client.
An employee in the graphic design department had to travel routinely into NYC to photograph
advertising layouts. She requested a permanent accommodation to not travel into NYC due to panic attacks.
Work & Well’s case worker requested supporting documentation from the employee’s physician. Upon
review of the documentation, it was discovered that the employee had not actually treated for
her panic attacks for three years and there was nothing in her medical record suggesting a
recent exacerbation of her condition.
Since the permanent accommodation request was not medically
substantiated, Work & Well denied it.
Work & Well’s determination avoided a major disruption in a small department’s process
workflow and prevented potential legal and employee relations liability.
Company-wide, Work & Well reduced overall time out of work due to medical leaves by 25% in the first
year. Work & Well denied 17% of the medical leave requests, and implemented a “light duty” program for
disabilities at selected sites, returning approximately 10% of the disability cases to monitored light duty work.
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