During this four-hour training session, Rachel will bring the best of her ADA disability compliance tools and strategies to share with DMEC attendees. This training will help you recognize and plug any holes and correct common pain points in your disability program before teaching you how to take that program to the next level.   

At the end of this half day session, you may leave with a tired brain, but you will also leave armed with tools, samples, templates, and knowledge that you can immediately apply to the new realities that have made this work more important than ever, but also harder to do well and efficiently.  

Learning Objectives: 

• Understand the legal intent of the ADA in regard to accommodations for disabled persons. 
• Learn a streamlined process to manage reasonable accommodations. 
• Learn the skills to collect medical and essential function data to support making reasonable accommodation decisions employers can feel confident about. 
• Understand how to evaluate what is reasonable and not reasonable. 

Speakers:
Rachel Shaw, Shaw HR Consulting

Hundreds of court decisions interpreting employer obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are decided each year, including frequent large jury verdicts and settlements of ADA and FMLA claims. This session will share important lessons learned from recent lawsuits and the do’s and don’ts of ADA/FMLA compliance challenges. You’ll have the chance to participate via interactive polling to predict the jury outcomes and learn what makes courts and juries sympathetic to employers and what does not. You’ll also learn tips to avoid liability and improve your policies, practices, and processes for handling FMLA requests and ADA accommodation issues.

Speakers:
Abigail O’Connell, JD, Senior Counsel, Sun Life
Marjory Robertson, JD, AVP, and Senior Counsel, Sun Life

For employers, remote work as an accommodation due to a medical condition continues to be one that is regularly requested. What do employers do when employees provide a medical note indicating they need to work from home? And how do employers manage employee requests to work from home when they are asking for a short-term versus long-term accommodation? This session will teach you how to gather the data to evaluate reasonableness and will review key points to customize your disability program. You’ll leave this session with template letters and forms to ensure you not only do good and compliant work, but have a process to document it as well.

Speaker:
Alison Dobner, Managing Consultant, Disability Compliance & Human Resources, Shaw HR Consulting

Before the pandemic, a mental health crisis was brewing in the U.S., with one in five individuals exhibiting diagnosable conditions. Overall leave of absence requests have spiked nearly 150% over the past five years, while leaves related to mental health are up an extraordinary 250% during that same period. Now more than ever, employees need the right level of support at the right time and in the right way. In this session, presenters will analyze recent absence trends related to behavioral health and use real-life scenarios to discuss the challenges related to administering these leaves, providing practical strategies and innovative care solutions that can address a broad range of mental health, physical health, and well-being issues. These tools serve as preventive resources to reduce overall leave for employers, as well as a care resource for employees on leave to accelerate recovery and help them get back to work more quickly.

Speakers:
Beth Brown, Director, Health & Well-Being, ComPsych
Sara Galle, Vice President, Absence Account Services, ComPsych

To build tomorrow’s future with top talent, employers must think differently about their leave and benefits programs. It’s no longer acceptable to offer employees only disability and maybe a parental leave. They expect their employer to offer programs that support their unique needs. To be successful, employers must understand what matters to a variety of demographics and consider expanding the definition of family and paternity, and other issues. In this interactive session, you’ll hear about the must-have and up-and-coming programs employees are looking for when considering a new employer and the benefits that will make them stay with their current employer.

Speakers:
Rachael H. Choate, BA, CLMS, Product Manager, FINEOS
Christy Traupe, SVP, Claims and Absence, FINEOS

While 15% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, the impact of health disparities and access to care for rural residents is concerning. An individual’s ZIP code is a stronger predictor of overall health than other factors, including biology or genetics. In fact, 60% of a person’s health is determined solely by ZIP code. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rural areas saw population increases, which included individuals who could now work remotely from anywhere. Rural residents encounter challenges with accessing specialists and obtaining preventive screenings, and often have more risk factors for certain health conditions. For example, rural areas have 20% fewer primary care providers, and 65% of rural counties do not have a psychiatrist. Suicide rates in rural areas are 64% to 68% higher than in urban areas. For employers, understanding the challenges that rural employees face is critical in ensuring a healthy and productive workforce.

Speakers:
Wendy Coduti, PhD, Regional Director, Health and Productivity Analytics and Consulting Practice, Prudential
Allyson Kambach, Vice President, Absence Product Lead, Prudential
Julia Salnikova, Vice President, Holistic Wellness Solutions, Prudential

The next two years could be a bumpy ride over the paid family and medical leave (PFML) landscape. Join us to learn about what is coming, what employers need to do to be prepared, and what they need to do to be ready for PFML benefits coming in 2025 and 2026. You’ll leave this session ready to tackle the multistate PFML mountains, armed with action items and information to consider as you make your decisions on whether to choose the state plan or a private plan and how to integrate new PFML programs into your current suite of leave of absence and disability programs.

Speakers:
Christina Korona, JD, Legal, Director Absence | Compliance, Alight
Sheri Pullen, Senior Compliance Director, Alight

Human resources and benefits specialists know firsthand the challenges of coordinating an entire leave and benefits package that could include disability, Family and Medical Leave Act, paid family and medical leave, supplemental health, workers’ compensation, and company-sponsored time off. As benefits continue to evolve and become more intertwined, it’s more important than ever to understand the overlap, provide employees with an easy-to-use experience, and ensure employers have streamlined administration. Join this workshop to look at real-life absence and benefits scenarios and workshop them with your peers.

Speakers:
Sharon Andrus, AVP, Paid Family and Medical Leave Product, The Hartford
Paul Dube’, Director, Disability Product, The Hartford
John Robinson, CPCU, VBS, National Absence Practice Lead, The Hartford
Allison Scaia, MBA, Vice President, Head of Health Services, The Hartford

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the focus of this working group: best practices, what’s working and what’s not for employer participants, and common gaps. This session will provide a brief overview of the ADA process followed by a discussion of five distinct topics: intake, accommodations, interactive process, communications, and system of record. You’ll receive an example guide to complete step by step with other workshop attendees. Pitfalls and best practices based on experience will be covered, and you’ll leave with concrete takeaways to implement and refine the ADA strategy in your workplace.

Speakers:
Laura McCormick, CLMS, Director, Employee Health & Leave Programs, Baystate Health
Teri Weber, SVP, Spring Consulting Group, an Alera Group Company

This hands-on forum will encourage conversation to better understand the importance of and need for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) interactive process; analyze ADA and/or Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) accommodation requests; properly respond to employee accommodation requests; gain insights on coaching supervisors for better employee relation outcomes; strengthen awareness of mental health issues in the workplace; and create the right workplace climate for addressing mental health conditions. Attendees will work through a complex ADA scenario involving mental health issues and, if time allows, a second PWFA and ADA scenario involving mental health issues.

Speakers:
Paula Allen, Global Leader, Research and Total Well-Being, TELUS Health
Ann Kuzee, JD, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CHPSE, Vice President, Legal, Absence Disability Management, TELUS Health