ACWA’s preferred provider, Occu-Med can help you with one of the biggest challenges facing employers today: hiring good employees. Evaluating applicants for medical conditions that can impair performance or make employees vulnerable to on-the-job injuries is especially tricky and requires specialized knowledge. Wrong hiring decisions can result in work-related injuries that will drive up workers comp costs and increase employee absences. The right decision without sound documentation can expose an employer to legal challenges that are costly and time consuming.

What's an employer to do? ACWA members can be proactive by signing up for the Occu-Med pre-employment and return to work medical evaluation program and

• save money in evaluation costs because applicants' medical exams will be tailored to the specific job

• have confidence that the employee hired is physically right for the job

• have documentation prepared by Occu-Med's experts in the event a hiring decision is challenged

• have the security of a proven system that has withstood all legal challenges along with Occu-Med's guidance and support in the unlikely event a decision is challenged

How it Works:

Benefits:

Most members should achieve savings that far exceed the costs in the following ways:

• The program will assure that pre-employment and job placement medical examinations are tailored to specific job requirements and concerns. This avoids costs for unnecessary tests as well as the potentially disastrous consequences that could result if the appropriate tests are not conducted.

• Improved hiring decisions based on better evaluation will result in fewer work-related injuries and/or job-induced illnesses. That will mean fewer workers' compensation claims.

• Fewer work-related injuries and illnesses will result in fewer missed workdays.

• Improved placement decisions may mean less use of employer-provided health coverage. That, in turn, over time may help control employer health insurance costs.

• Occu-Med's services will reduce the staff time that has to be devoted by human resource or other management personnel for these matters.

• Occu-Med's program has a proven record of recommendations and supporting documentation that are legally defensible.

Occu-Med's System:

Occu-Med will do an in-depth analysis of each job in the program. Then a comprehensive profile of the physical requirements of a job class will be developed and the specific medical testing will be determined.

Occu-Med will identify local doctors and clinics that can conduct examinations and will train them to do the testing identified by the Occu-Med analysis. (This could be a medical provider already used by the employer.)

When medical evaluation is needed to determine whether to hire an applicant or to move an existing employee into a new position, the exam will be conducted by an Occu-Med trained doctor. Exam results will go to Occu-Med for review and evaluation. Occu-Med will immediately prepare documentation of the exam findings along with recommendations, including explanation of the recommendations. Occu-Med usually has the documentation to the client the same day it gets the exam results from the doctor.

How Much Does it Cost?

The Occu-Med preferred provider program with ACWA is open to ACWA members at a very low monthly fee. Those who participate will not be required to pay Occu-Med's usual start-up fee, which can be in the thousands of dollars, depending on the number of employees. In addition, the monthly fee will be reduced by 25% after an employer has been in the program one year.

About Occu-Med:

The Fresno-based company has been providing its services to hundreds of employers in both the public and private sector, including cities, counties, various kinds of special districts, joint powers authorities, community colleges, universities, the state of Hawaii and others.

For more information, contact Marcia Wulff, ACWA’s Program Administrator, at 916.441.4545, marciaw@acwa.com.