More physicians are charging hefty fees to fill out medical certification forms required by The Family and Medical Leave Act, said a few HR professionals during a session yesterday at the Society for Human Resource Management’s three-day conference on workplace legislation.
FMLA permits employers to require workers who seek leave protection to submit within 15 days a medical certification form that substantiates the duration for the leave to be taken.
A few attendees noticed that a growing number of physicians are charging anywhere from $100 to $150 to complete the FMLA required forms, which can sometimes result in a bureaucratic delay in granting the FMLA leave. Others contended that physicians who charge costly fees for certifying FMLA forms classify the procedure as an administrative function, so some health plans will not cover the cost.
“If a doctor is charging, I recommend that you check with your plan to make sure it is covered,” said Manesh Rath, a labor and employment law attorney at the Washington, D.C.-based firm Keller and Heckman, LLP. “Yet as you all know, whether a plan covers the fees is going to be unique to each health plan,” he added. “Plan coverage specs are going to change from plan to plan, even within the same carrier and from year to year.”
Still, Rath acknowledged that he is hearing more stories about doctors charging fees to complete FMLA medical certification forms.
Employers have to decide whether to cover those charges or allow the employee to bear the cost, he said. “Either way, that employee has an obligation to comply with an employer’s request for medical certification. I would not encourage employers to release the employee from those obligations simply because of fees tied to medical certification forms.”
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