June is National Employee Wellness Month, Folks. Did you know?
It’s a campaign created a few years ago by none other than Virgin HealthMiles, a leading provider of employee health programs (go figure). And this year’s initiative is co-sponsored by the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance, the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, and the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. Why do we smell diabetes all over that?
A lot of the focus here is on prevention, as in offering employees rewards for “healthy behaviors” that will cut their risks of things like type 2 diabetes. Can’t argue with that, I guess.
But we’re wondering how well our post-diagnosis PWD compatriots are feeling with their diabetes in their place of work.
Do you feel supported?
Tolerated?
Restricted or hampered in any way?
Do people around you even know you have diabetes? What about your boss?
And then there’s the Big Benefits Question: Is anybody out there actually engaged in a Diabetes Management Program like this one from Wellness Works that’s offered by your employer?
That plan makes no differentiation between type 1 and type 2, and if you fulfill nine program requirements (from A1C to annual dental exams) you receive “appropriate diabetic supplies and diabetic medications” at no cost for a year (and it can be renewed by “re-certifying the program requirements” annually). That doesn’t sound like a bad deal at all!
But we know that not everyone is so lucky to fall into benefits like that.
In fact, the real goal of many “employee wellness programs” is to save the employer money on healthcare costs — even by actions as blatantly un-wellness-friendly as “requiring prior authorization for services like MRIs, limiting the number of physical or occupational therapy sessions a person could have, and limiting orthotics to people with certain diseases, like diabetes.” How does hitting hardest at the people who need help the most promote “employee wellness,” we’d like to know?
Anyway, we’d love to hear your workplace stories, good or bad.
And in case you have questions about your rights with diabetes on the job (relative to the Americans with Disabilities Act), see this great Q&A from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Good stuff.
At my physical workspace, I don’t really have any problems – but I could write a book about the incompetence of our non-provider ExpressScripts in actually filling the prescriptions I need to stay healthy. After month long delays, scripts that mysteriously vanish out of their system, insulin refills that are denied because they feel I should mail order them (where they will ignore them like my last 6 mail order rxs). I am complaining to our HR department that *this* is making it very difficult to do my job, or to stay healthy, for that matter.
A number of so-called “disease management programs” offered by insurance companies actually save money, or improve patient outcomes. The reason: many are simply robocalls reminding patients to take medicines, exercise, etc. but cost insurance companies a fortune to offer, in spite of providing questionable benefits. Some insurers like UnitedHealthCare are trying new pricing for people with chronic diseases by waiving copays and the like, but these are in trial only with very large companies (such as GE) and it may be a few more years before the results are known and these become more commonplace. Just call me a skeptic of the motives … and the sponsors … of these wellness initiatives; without backing them with dollars, its a lot of talk but little action.
We are in the middle of my workplace “Employee Wellness” blood tests screening. At no charge to employees and their dependents rapid blood tests are done for glucose and cholesterol. As well, blood pressure is taken. This is not to diagnosis but to warn the employee of “potential problems.” Participating in this screening, filling out a wellness screening form and doing a few other “health challenges” will result in a year of “no premiums” for our excellent health insurance. I am very pleased. Also, I have had no copay for any pump supplies and I get free glucose strips (400 per month – with an authorization from my endo). I can’t ever leave this job!
Joan
Joan,
Where do you work?!
Kristin
At one place I worked I kept it secret for a very long time. When it became impossible to do that any longer and I came clean; no one really cared. It gradually became inconvenient for them to have me test my blood sugar or eat some quick carbs. They got increasingly annoyed when I told them my needs. The boss-lady pulled me into her office one day, a cancer-survivor herself, and told me to get OVER it. She had beat cancer and, her logic followed, I needed to cowboy up and beat diabetes. I can still hear her saying it in my head, quite frequently. Not very supportive, that’s for sure.
@Haidee – that’s awful! Employers need to know that some conditions are not curable, just “manageable.”
I teach Kindergarten at a small private school for kids with learning differences. When I meet my new families/students I explain that I have T1 diabetes. My kids get used to me regularly checking my blood sugar, letting me eat candy in front of them when I’m low, and even changing my Omnipod in front of them. A very supportive work place indeed!
I was told by one manager (major corporation) that I spent 17 minutes in the ladies room (he said he had timed me) and was being written up for being more than the permitted 15 minutes. I had a severe hypoglycemic (on a pump – had just started) and could not physically do what I needed to do (talk coherently) until my bg came up. Part of my job was answering the phone. At the executive administrative level – the phones had to be answered coherently/lol. He also told me when I started the pump that I was only allowed to take 3 days off to work w/my doctor initiate pump therapy. The doctor said I needed a full five days. I used my vacation days for the last two, but was still written up for not complying with what he wanted. Some people are just mean. There were a ton of other administrative admins to cover for me those 2 days but his power trip thing was he was the boss man (like Haidee’s boss lady!!) Not really human. I think karma got him eventually.
My prescription plan has an odd clause. My test strips and syringes are free if I buy them at the same time I buy my insulin, but I have to pay the copay if I buy them separately. Doesn’t make much sense to me. I assume it’s to encourage me to test my blood sugar, but, I’m going to do that regardless of what day I refill the prescriptions.
I am newly diagnosed T2 … and I am a medical unit secretary in the ICU, you would THINK these people would get it but I have one charge RN that doesn’t. I take Victoza and have to eat within half an hour of injecting, so when I tell her I need to go to lunch by so and so because I injected she tells me she will “try to accomodate me” and that I should bring snacks. Well my MD has me on a plan where I don’t eat snacks anymore (have lost 32 lbs) and I carb count. Once when I did bring my food to the desk she is like “when we OFFER you lunch you need to go” … OFFER ME … like it’s a prize. It’s a LAW that I’m allowed my 30 minutes AND 2 15 minute breaks. Which I never get those. Plus getting anyone to cover me while I go to the bathroom is like pulling teeth. I’m close to going to HR but afraid to death of her making my life miserable.