Unpaid Overtime April 27, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in Legal Advice.Tags: OVERTIME PAY, salary
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United States federal law generally requires employees who work more than 40 hours per week be paid overtime pay. Overtime pay is calculated at the regular hourly rate of pay plus an additional 50 percent of that regular rate. Just because an employee is paid a weekly, bi-weekly and/or monthly salary does not necessarily mean the employee is not entitled to overtime pay. Also, some states have wage and hour requirements for employers different from federal law.
To be ineligible for overtime, an employee must be in an exempt classification. Exempt classifications apply to executive, administrative, or professional employees. To qualify for an exemption from overtime pay requirements under these categories, the employee must generally pass a two-pronged test consisting of:
- a salary basis test, and
- a duties test.
Wrongful Termination April 27, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in Legal Advice.Tags: At Will Employee, Contract Employee, Discrimination, employment termination, job security
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Maybe they “resigned” after being pressured into it. Maybe they did not receive proper notice. Maybe they lost the job for no reason they can discern. If they have been dismissed, they should sign any papers from their employer.
- Discrimination: if they have been discriminated against because of race, sex, religion, disability or age, it may be a breach of human rights.
- Insufficient Cause: Actions such as theft, violence or threatening behavior may be cause for immediated dismissal. However, isolated instances of a less serious nature can not normally be used as an excuse to fire someone, unless there is a history of such behavior.
- Whistleblowing: it is illegal to fire an employee, or to engage in retaliation for whistleblowing. Any person who “interferes” with the livelihood of an employee who has provided information to legal authorities regarding alleged illegal activity of their employer, is subject to up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
- Constructive Dismissal: If they felt pressured to resign, or the working conditions were made to be so horrible they couldn’t continue working, they may be able to claim constructive discharge. they may also claim constructive dismissal if pay or working conditions have been degraded or if the level of responsibility has been reduced.
When CAN an employer legally fire you:
- At-Will Employee: If they have no contract with the employer, they are an “at will” employee, and as such, they may be fired at any time for any reason that is not discrimination. However, some challenges and exceptions to this rule include breach of implied contract, reliance on an offer of employment and intentional emotional distress. At will employees can be fired for job-related problems, or for non-job-related reasons such as the boss doesn’t like your jokes, or personality conflict.
- Contract Employee: If they have a contract, the termination will be governed by the terms of the contract, unless the contract states they are an “at-will” employee, in which case they may be fired “at will”. Contracts may be written or oral, even based on a promise that the “job would be secure”.
Disability Insurance – First Unum: Another Bad Faith Practice April 26, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, -GEN. INFO.add a comment
By Jane Mundy
Icy Hot Too Hot to Handle April 26, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO.Tags: Chattem Inc, FDA, Icy Hot Patch
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By Gordon Gibb
However, the patch itself doesn’t appeal to everyone—including a guy on You Tube who is seen shooting bullets into an extra-large Icy Hot patch. The disgruntled consumer, obviously a weapons enthusiast, writes that the patch fails to stay in place. He then peers into the camera, and claims that ‘this is what happens when products don’t work,’ before walking off to what appears to be an abandoned building in an open field, takes aim, and fires several rounds into what we assume is the patch in question. After he’s done, he walks over to the camera and shows an extra-large Icy Hot patch riddled with bullet holes…… (Read the rest of this article)Botox and Myobloc Linked to Paralysis and Death April 26, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, NEWS.Tags: Botox, botulinum toxin, FDA, Myobloc
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The popular anti-wrinkle drugs Botox and Myobloc have been linked to adverse reactions, including respiratory failure and even death, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned on February 8, 2008.To date, the FDA has reported several deaths in children, mostly cerebral palsy patients who were administered Botox for associated limb spasticity (severe arm and leg muscle spasms). The FDA is currently investigating reports of illnesses in adults who used the drugs for other conditions, including a woman who was hospitalized after she was given Botox for forehead wrinkles.
The FDA warning came two weeks after being petitioned by Public Citizen to strengthen warnings to users of Botox and Myobloc. The advocacy group is asking the agency to order a black box warning after it cited 180 reports of U.S. patients suffering fluid in the lungs, difficulty swallowing or pneumonia, including 16 deaths. A black box warning is the FDA’s strongest type: it appears on the package insert for prescription drugs that may cause serious adverse effects. Public Citizen is also asking that every patient receive a pamphlet outlining the risk before each botulinum toxin injection.
Botox and Myobloc use botulinum toxin, which blocks nerve impulses to muscles. The FDA only approved the use of botulinum toxin for a limited number of “therapeutic” conditions, including uncontrollable neck and shoulder muscle contractions, crossed eyes, spasmodic blinking of the eyes and excessive underarm sweating. Use of botulinum toxins for treatment of limb spasticity in children or adults is not approved in the US, nor have botulinum toxins been approved in any condition in children less than 12 years of age…… (Read the rest of this article)
Duragesic Fentanyl Patch Recall April 26, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, NEWS.Tags: Duragesic Fentanyl Patch, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis
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Johnson & Johnson and Novartis have announced a recall after discovering manufacturing defects that may cause the pain patches to leak the painkiller fentanyl, which could lead to fatal overdoses.An overdose of fentanyl can cause fatal respiratory and/or cardiac arrest.
The recall affects all Duragesic patches with an expiry date on or before December 2009. The defective patches may have a cut in the patch, allowing direct contact of the fentanyl gel to the users skin.
This is the 5th recall of the Duragesic patch in the last 14 years. The last recall, in July 2005, was issued following the death of 120 patch users.
Due to the dangerous nature of the drug, Duragesic contains a black-box warning label explaining the risk of accidental fatal overdose and respiratory depression or hypoventilation.
Symptoms and Side Effects of Duragesic Fentanyl Patch
Medical professionals are concerned that patients using the Duragesic pain patch are susceptible to accidental overdose which can be fatal. Overdose can occur when the patch is damaged, cut, or defective (as those involved in the recent recall).
Symptoms of a fentanyl overdose include slow breathing, seizures, dizziness, weakness, loss of consciousness or coma, confusion, tiredness, cold and clammy skin, and small pupils. Continued exposure to uncontrolled amounts of fentanyl can lead to addiction and dependency. The opioid drug stays in the system for up to 72 hours.
Exposing Aetna Tricks April 26, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, NEWS.Tags: -DENTAL, ADA, Aetna, American Dental Association, Dental Insruance, dentist, dentistry
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Research by Darrell Pruitt, DDS
Do you want to see how easily the ADA accepts being jerked around by Aetna year after year? Our leaders celebrated the collaboration yesterday with a joyful article that was posted in the ADA News (with no byline).
Here is the opening sentence: “Explanation of benefit language reported as problematic by dental offices was among the issues that the ADA Aetna Advisory Committee sorted out during the past four years.”
Four years? Really? Incredibly, that sounds even less efficient than the Texas Dental Association’s “Town Hall” meetings concerning workforce issues – also a difficult and tedious multi-year task, rendered next to irrelevant by a rapidly changing healthcare market.
So, now that all those EOB language problems have been solved, how long will it take for clever actuarial specialists at Aetna to create even trickier hoops that will take four more years of “cooperative” meetings? It is obviously difficult for the ADA to negotiate from a position of power when Aetna easily creates deceptive hoops out of thin air. I think Aetna actually invented “bundling” during a business retreat in upstate New York in the ‘80s. The trick must be at least twenty years old, yet the ADA is still fighting it. Incredible.
I don’t want to brag, but if this is the best the ADA has to offer, even I can think up very cheap, but clever ways to convince insurance companies that their free ride through ADA Headquarters is so over. For example, just to quickly get their undivided attention, as well as an unprecedented level of respect for the dentists who treat their clients, I would strategically float a balloon about an upcoming widespread survey of dentists’ opinions of dental insurance companies.
If the survey of dentists were more than a simple rumor, I estimate it would take about five weeks to complete, start to finish. It could be completed long before the national ADA convention in San Antonio this fall.
Who would be interested in the results of such a survey? Show me an employer who if given a real selection, will choose the most despised dental insurance plan on the market.
Without transparency, there is no accountability. Darrell Pruitt DDS
ADA-Aetna meetings prove fruitful ??? April 26, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, NEWS.Tags: -DENTAL, ADA, Aetna, American Dental Association, dental insurance, dentist, dentistry
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ADA News
Explanation of benefit language reported as problematic by dental offices was among the issues that the ADA Aetna Advisory Committee sorted out during the past four years.
The committee, comprised of both ADA and Aetna representatives, met twice a year for four years under a 2003 settlement agreement seeking to improve communication and collaboration and lessen complexity in the payment of dental claims.
ADA representative dentists made recommendations to Aetna representatives on the company’s policies. The committee was unanimous in its opinion that the meetings were productive for both sides based on the information and ideas exchanged, outcomes over the years, including:
A letter sent from Aetna’s Special Investigations Unit about standard auditing procedures that may have alarmed patients was revised. The SIU worked directly with the state dental society on the wording of the patient letter to clearly explain its routine status.
EOB language considered problematic by member dental offices was reviewed. Aetna revised language to make it compatible with what the dental offices were using in most cases.
Aetna formerly bundled the removal of an impacted tooth and an additional removal of a cyst on the same day. Aetna revised the policy as a result of the committee recommendation. Aetna will deny one of the procedures if submitted on the same day and in the same area of the mandible or maxilla; Aetna will allow the cyst removal if it is performed in a different area of the mouth.
ADA fires executive director and CEO. Why? April 26, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, NEWS.Tags: -DENTAL, ADA, dentist, dentistry, Dr. James Bramson, executive director ADA, Mary Logan
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Darell Pruitt, DDS
There was a shake up at ADA Headquarters in Chicago while I was fishing the mighty Cibolo in south Texas from an inner tube, wearing swimming trunks and swim fins. I was out of touch.
Upon returning yesterday, I learned that Dr. James Bramson the executive director of the ADA and Mary Logan, the ADA’s CEO, were simultaneously fired this week. I know nothing more about it than you will after reading the article that was posted on Friday on the ADA News which I copied below.
Today I told a couple of you that I refuse to speculate that the firings were because of the locally famous national HIPAA blunder. I could certainly look foolish if the two top ADA employees were actually guilty of garden variety under-achievement, common pilferage of office supplies or even more serious malfeasance that has nothing to do with the mystery behind the ADA’s earlier support of HIPAA. Nevertheless, more than one of my friends has already suggested that huge mistakes in judgment concerning the mandate must be why vacancies are suddenly appearing in Chicago. I have to say that this does not sound like a well-planned, smooth transition to me, friends. And I have to agree that the timing is right. Bramson and Logan both began their abruptly-halted terms in 2001 – about the same time that the Bush administration was finding its legs – sending Newt Gingrich out on door-to-door sales missions to push EHRs on behalf of the healthcare IT industry as well as the insurance industry, both heavy, heavy contributors to the Bush campaign.
Here is a deeper question for the really suspicious: How were both the executive director and the CEO selected in 2000? Who else came aboard in 2001? How were they selected?
ADA Board names Dr. Feldman interim executive director April 26, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, NEWS.Tags: -DENTAL, ADA, ADA President Mark J. Feldman, American Dental Association, dentist, dentistry
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Following its April meeting at the Chicago headquarters, the ADA Board of Trustees announced that ADA President Mark J. Feldman is serving as the interim executive director of the American Dental Association.
Dr. James B. Bramson is no longer with the ADA staff, after serving from 2001-2008 as executive director.
“We appreciate his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Dr. Feldman said in his April 15 announcement to employees.
Mary Logan, who served as chief operating officer from 2001-2008, also is no longer with the Association. The ADA is also appreciative of her contributions to the Association.
Formation of a search committee for a new executive director is under way. Details about the search will appear in future issues of the ADA News as well as online on ADA.org.
Dr. Feldman discussed the situation in an April 18 e-mail to constituent and component dental societies. The text follows:
Since Tuesday [April 15], I have received many calls, e-mails and questions regarding the departure of the executive director and chief operating officer. The events of the past week moved rapidly. I’m sure you understand that, regrettably, prudence sometimes takes precedence and communications lag. I assure you that this will not be a problem moving forward.
I know that the first question on everyone’s mind is, “What happened?” And, I am sure you understand that we cannot discuss the details. On employment matters, ADA respects the privacy of all individuals no longer in its employ. Regardless of the former positions held, the same courtesies and deference are afforded.
