In the best-case scenario, my patient reassures me that she rarely misses any time from the office but needs to have the FMLA on file with her human resources office so she isn’t “written up” or penalized if she has to have a medical absence. The much more difficult dilemma is the patient who tells me he needs to allow a few days off per month because of fatigue and difficulty getting out of bed. If I took off 3 days a month because of fatigue, I could lose my practice, or worse yet – gasp – my column!
Most agonizing of all are the FMLA cheats, those patients who game the system. One corporation called me to explain that they allowed for paid FMLA days off. That was an eye opener for me, and we agreed that every time my patient took an FMLA day he’d have to notify me. It’s easy to fill out these forms and lose track of their practical consequences, but once the patient’s FMLA days led to a bunch of annoying phone calls and messages from the company, I got the point. When his FMLA paperwork was up for renewal at his next visit, I bluntly told him that I could not justify the amount of time he was taking off work. Thanks to my splendid care, his arthritis was doing well, so he no longer needed all those paid days off. Although my patient couldn’t argue the point, he didn’t look very happy. Whatever expletive he was thinking, though, he kept to himself.
This column, “Inside Rheum,” regularly appears in Rheumatology News. Dr. Greenbaum is a rheumatologist who practices in Greenwood, Ind.