*Raises brow* Doesn't surprise me.  In a hire-and-fire-at-will state like NC you can be terminated for any reason other than discrimination and that would be hard to prove.

Kat
-------Original Message-------
From: "Michael H. Collis" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 07/15/03 12:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Fwd: Firms Fire Disabled Workers to Save Health-Care Costs]

>
>   Comments?

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Firms Fire Disabled Workers to Save Health-Care Costs
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:10:10 -0400
From: Justice For All Moderator <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Justice For All E-Mail Network
To: [log in to unmask]



"Firms Fire Disabled Workers to Save Health-Care Costs"

Here's a sobering article from the front page of
yesterday's Wall Street Journal, highlighting the
persistent barrier that lack of quality health care poses
to disabled Americans who want to work. The story openly
discusses some corporations' approach to managing slow
economic times - firing people with disabilities who have
high health care costs.  Curiously, there's no mention of
the Americans with Disabilities Act in the article and how
these actions might be prohibited discrimination under the
ADA (violation of another statute is mentioned).  You can
contact the author, Joseph Pereira, at
[log in to unmask]

Jonathan Young
JFA Editor, AAPD

=========================

To Save on Health-Care Costs, Firms Fire Disabled Workers

Policy Shift at Polaroid Leads to Scrimping, New Worries
for Extremely Sick Employees
July 14, 2003
PAGE ONE
By JOSEPH PEREIRA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

As it was preparing the sale of its assets to Bank One
Corp. last July, Polaroid Corp. sent a letter to 180
disabled employees notifying them that they had been fired
and their health, life and dental insurance were being
terminated.

At the time he received the letter, Nelson Tauriac, a
Polaroid forklift operator for 21 years, was bed-ridden,
his feet swollen to three times their normal size because
of kidney disease. John Magenheimer, who had headed a
Polaroid research laboratory, was recovering from surgery
in which one of his ribs was removed so doctors could cut
out a cancerous tumor pressing against his heart. Elizabeth
Williams, a senior human-resources administrator, was at
home, doubled over with pain from a form of lupus that
attacks the lungs and muscles.

"I couldn't believe this was happening," recalls Mr.
Magenheimer, who says his wife showed him the letter as he
lay "in a fog" from chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
"How could Polaroid do this to me? For more than 20
years I gave them everything I had."


Across the corporate landscape, disabled workers are
becoming an increasingly common casualty of the drive to
cut costs. As recently as three to five years ago most
companies paid health benefits for the long-term
disabled until they were 65 years old, according to James
Curcio, a senior consultant for Washington Business Group
on Health, a trade association that helps companies contain
health-care costs. At 65, federal Medicare benefits
kick in.

But as health-insurance costs and the number of disabled
employees climb, more companies are firing them. A Mercer
Human Resource Consulting study last year found that 27% of
the 723 companies surveyed dismiss employees as soon as
they go on long-term disability and that 24% dismiss them
at a set time thereafter, usually six to 12 months. (Dow
Jones & Co., which publishes The Wall Street Journal,
terminates employees six months afterward.) The survey
found 15% keep the disabled on as employees with benefits
until age 65.

Mr. Magenheimer and the other employees fired by Polaroid
were on long-term disability leave because of injuries or
illnesses that left them too incapacitated to work. They
are entitled to be compensated at 60% to 70% of their
regular pay through a combination of social-security
disability benefits and payouts from disability-insurance
policies purchased by Polaroid.

They still receive that money. But the loss of their other
benefits -- especially their health and life insurance --
has brought them additional financial burdens at a time
when they already are struggling with reduced income and
the ravages of cancer, heart disease and other serious
conditions.

The federal law known as COBRA mandates that they can keep
the health insurance they had at Polaroid for 18 months
after their dismissal. Some companies pay the premiums, but
most, like Polaroid, require employees to pick up the tab
themselves. Disabled workers can purchase Medicare coverage
after 18 months. Both kinds of coverage cost thousands of
dollars a year, which many disabled workers can ill afford.
Because people on long-term disability leave continue to
receive a portion of their salaries, they are typically not
eligible for the Medicaid program that offers poor
Americans health insurance.

Kevin Pond, a Polaroid spokesman, says that Bank One took
over Polaroid with the understanding that the new
management would decide whom to hire and whom to let go.
"Even though the old Polaroid maintained their employee-
like status, the [workers on long-term disability] were not
real employees," he says. In response to a letter to
Polaroid by U.S. Rep. William Delahunt of Massachusetts,
who had written on behalf of constituents who worked there,
Polaroid general counsel Neal Goldman noted that the
company had preserved the benefits as long as it could,
despite "enormous pressure to dramatically reduce costs"
during bankruptcy.

The disability-payment squeeze is likely to continue for
companies and their employees. Some 5.5 million people
received long-term disability benefits last year, according
to the U.S. Department of Labor, a 62% jump from 1992.
The reasons for the big rise aren't completely understood,
but the most cited explanation is an aging work force.

Bankruptcies and takeovers often spur companies to fire
disabled workers. When International Steel Group Inc.
acquired the assets of LTV Corp. last year, it rehired many
of the able-bodied workers who had been dismissed in
LTV's bankruptcy proceeding. It didn't rehire the hundreds
of employees on disability. When MMI Co., a medical
consulting and insurance firm in Deerfield, Ill., in 1999
acquired Applied Risk Management Inc. of Oakland, Calif.,
which administers worker's compensation programs for
companies, it only hired ARM employees who weren't on
medical or extended leave. Five employees on long-term
disability leave weren't hired.

MMI has since been acquired by St. Paul Cos., an insurance
concern. A spokeswoman declined to comment. Mitch Hecht,
vice president of external affairs at International Steel,
says, "It's strictly an arithmetic fact that the profits
are not being generated to cover the costs of all the
health care programs of workers from the past." The company
views the plight of the disabled workers as a tragedy and
calls on the government "to come up with a broad solution
to fix the problem," says Mr. Hecht.

Polaroid began its downward spiral in the mid-1990s, as
digital cameras and cheap, one-hour developing ravaged its
niche of instant photography. With nearly $1 billion in
debt, Polaroid filed for bankruptcy-court protection in
October 2001. Nine months later, One Equity Partners, a
Bank One investment arm, acquired its assets. "Under the
asset purchase agreement, employees on long-term disability
will not be hired by One Equity Partners," Polaroid wrote
in a July 2002 letter to the affected workers.

Ms. Williams, who has been on disability since 1988 because
of her lupus and diabetes, says "people in the group have a
multiplicity of medical problems." Many are in their 50s.
Elaine Johnson, 59, of Attleboro, Mass., suffers from blood
clotting and heart problems and nearly died from a
pulmonary embolism earlier this year. Another, Paul Day,
61, of Billerica, Mass., has undergone several surgeries to
remove cancerous growths in his leg and kidney.

Ms. Williams recruited some of her ex-colleagues to hire
attorney Harvey Schwartz, who filed a discrimination case
last week in federal court in Boston. Polaroid and One
Equity "got together and consciously planned to
discriminate against people who were receiving" long-term
disability benefits, says Mr. Schwartz, of Boston. The new
Polaroid hired able-bodied workers, but their disabled
colleagues "were intentionally not hired because they were
disabled," Mr. Schwartz added. A spokesman for Polaroid,
under One Equity's management, declined to comment on the
suit.

It isn't the first time disabled workers have gone to court
on the issue. Denice Lessard, a compensation analyst for
Applied Risk Management, had been on long-term disability
for three years because of a work-related spine injury,
when MMI acquired the company and she was fired. A three-
judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco ruled in Ms. Lessard's favor, stating that
discrimination had occurred. By firing the disabled
workers, MMI was effectively punishing them "for exercising
their rights under an employee benefit plan," the court
wrote. That is illegal under the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act, which guarantees employees the right to use
their benefits.

The case was sent back to the district court, which had
earlier ruled in the company's favor. MMI subsequently
settled, and Ms. Lessard's benefits have been restored,
says her attorney Laurence F. Padway.

In Polaroid's good years, the 1970s through the early
1990s, surveys frequently rated the company as one of the
100 best companies to work for. The company paid full
tuition for employees pursuing college degrees and provided
free medical services at headquarters and other sites with
a staff that included four doctors, 13 nurses and about
half a dozen family and divorce counselors.

Polaroid took pride in supporting employees who were sick
or got hurt on the job. Short-term disability compensation,
at 100% of pay for up to a year, was among the best in the
country. Employees on long-term disability were permitted
to remain with the company until 65. When employees went on
long-term disability, the company even picked up the tab
for the portion of health and life insurance premiums that
were typically deducted from Polaroid paychecks.

At the time of One Equity's offer, Polaroid had about 8,000
employees. It now has less than 6,000, says a person
familiar with the company. The company no longer reports
results, but people familiar with the revamped company's
business say that it is now profitable. The company has
introduced new products and most employees received a bonus
last Christmas, says Karl Farmer, chairman of a court-
appointed committee that looks after Polaroid retirees'
interests.

For many disabled employees, things haven't worked out as
well. On receiving news of his termination last summer, Mr.
Tauriac, the long-time forklift operator, found it would
cost him $862 a month to continue the health insurance he
had been getting free.

That left Mr. Tauriac with a difficult choice. He could
continue to live in his $1,100-a-month, two-bedroom
apartment in New Iberia, La., without health insurance, or
keep his health insurance and move out. On his monthly
disability income of $1,960 he couldn't afford both. Even
with the company's health plan, his co-payments for 16
prescription drugs and doctors' visits had been running up
to $350 a month. In addition to heart problems Mr. Tauriac
was suffering from hypertension and diabetes, and needed
kidney dialysis three times a week.

After deliberating for a month, Mr. Tauriac and his wife
Gladys reluctantly decided to move to a modest cottage
owned by her brother, who discounted the rent to $400 a
month. Over the next six weeks he was hospitalized five
times for ailments including chest pains, shortness of
breath and high-blood pressure.

On Oct. 15, 2002, his feet swollen and filled with blood
clots, he died. He was 61 years old. "He used to wake up in
the middle of the night and say to me, 'I don't know what's
happening to me, lovely,' " Mrs. Tauriac recalls. She
believes "it was the stress" that made him take a turn for
the worse -- "no money, no house, no peace."

Had he died before Polaroid fired him, Mrs. Tauriac would
have received $77,220 from a life insurance policy that
paid 1.5 times his salary. But the policy ended with his
employment. Mrs. Tauriac says she couldn't have afforded
the funeral without a gift from her son, who is in graduate
school.

Herself a Polaroid employee before taking early retirement
in 1995, she receives a total of about $800 a month from
her pension and survivor benefits. Of that, $381 goes for
health insurance, which doesn't cover drugs. So Mrs.
Tauriac says she skips prescriptions for hypertension and a
heart condition. She has been moving from relative to
relative to save on rent. At 59, she has concluded, she
soon will have to find work.

"Life today is a far cry from the way it used to be a
decade ago," when she and her husband lived in suburban
Easton, Mass., she says. "Between the two of us we made
$90,000 a year. We sent our son to Boston College and we
thought life was good. I never thought I was going to end
up this way."

When Mr. Magenheimer was dismissed, he lost his health
insurance, although he was still covered under his wife's
policy, provided by the school where she teaches. He
started looking to replace the life-insurance policy that
he also lost, fearing his family would be left in a bind.
He had a $1 million policy through Polaroid, including
extra coverage for which he paid between $500 and $1,000 a
year for 20 years. As director of the company's Materials
and Chemical Analysis Laboratory, Mr. Magenheimer had
earned $110,000 a year.

Diagnosed with a deadly form of skin cancer in 1992, Mr.
Magenheimer worked for six years following the diagnosis.
He worked longer than he would have liked, he says, in part
because he wanted to keep the life insurance. To keep up
with the work, he took an afternoon nap and then often
worked late. He injected himself with anticancer drugs that
he kept in a cooler at the lab. "It made you feel like you
had the worst case of the flu, but it gave you energy," he
recalls, sitting in his dining room of his suburban home.

He went on long-term disability leave in 1998. Treatments
did some good, he says, but tumors kept resurfacing, and
his condition didn't improve enough to return to work. He
had just undergone surgery when the news came about
his dismissal. From a Boston hospital bed, he telephoned
insurance agents, searching for a new life policy. Many
asked him whether he was "nuts" and told him no one so sick
was insurable, he says.

He was so frustrated he would scream into the phone and end
up drained from the fighting. After several weeks, Mr.
Magenheimer says, he threatened to bring a discrimination
case against the insurance company that covered him
at Polaroid unless it extended the policy. It agreed to
$500,000 in coverage, for $20,000 a year in premiums. To
make the payments, he took out a third mortgage on his
home, adding $100,000 in debt to the $125,000 he already
owed on the previous mortgages.

Sally Ferrari, another of the terminated Polaroid
employees, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1996
and went on long-term disability a year later. The former
executive assistant to a marketing director is 59. Her
husband John is two years older and worked for 31 years at
Polaroid as a human resources executive before leaving in
the same year for another job. At Polaroid the two would
meet for lunch whenever possible.

Mr. Ferrari says he would have retired by now to take care
of his wife, but has to keep working to afford her care and
health insurance. He said he is "bitter" about having to
spend his days away from his wife in the time remaining
before her dementia puts her beyond reach.

Patients who contract Alzheimer's as early as his wife
usually decline rapidly, Mr. Ferrari has learned. Many are
dead within eight years, according to the Alzheimer's
Research Foundation, "But she's got a strong constitution,"
says Mr. Ferrari, holding back tears. "I'm hoping she can
make it to 65."

Write to Joseph Pereira at [log in to unmask]

# # #

=====================

NOTE: Some Internet Providers (including AOL, Earthlink and
Juno) may see JFA postings as spam because of the large
volume of JFA mail recipients and fail to deliver the
posting. If this happens more than a few times, the JFA
system may automatically unsubscribe some email
addresses. Should you stop receiving JFA Alerts, please
subscribe to JFA again as per the instructions at
http://www.jfanow.org.

PLEASE Empty your email inbox regularly. JFA deletes
subscribers that are consistently over their message quota.
If you stop using an account please unsubscribe that old
account.

With hundreds of inbound emails and thousands of outbound
emails daily, JFA can not respond to every message.

We thank you for your understanding and continued
outstanding advocacy!

=====================

JUSTICE FOR ALL -- A Service of the
American Association of People with Disabilities
www.aapd-dc.org     www.jfanow.org

There's strength in numbers!  Be a part of a national
coalition of people with disabilities and join AAPD today.
www.aapd-dc.org



=====================================================================
                 Justice-For-All FREE Subscriptions
   To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to [log in to unmask]
         with one or the other in the body of your message:
                         subscribe justice
                        unsubscribe justice
>