Category: Health

The Basics of Understanding Disability LawThe Basics of Understanding Disability Law

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as well as the many laws associated with it, was signed as a way to provide protection to individuals who were constantly the victims of discrimination. This act, as well as the laws under it, put a stop to this problem. While it places focus on every aspect of the disabled person’s life, specific emphasis was placed on employees with disabilities and their mistreatment in the workplace. Law offices like www.parmelelawfirm.com, for example, are well versed in these laws and can answer any questions businesses have regarding these matters.

How Can Businesses Can Be Proactive?

Business owners and managers must be aware of disability laws to make sure they are being followed and adhered to within their workplace. Educational institutions, government institutes, and private business are all bound by these laws no matter how many people are employed. However, the rest of the businesses must have at least fifteen people or more on their payroll in order to be bound by these laws. Businesses must make some accommodations to help the employee perform their job duties, but it should not put undue stress on how the day-to-day operations run. For example, the business should not experience any unnecessary hardships as a result of this new hire.

What Are the Basics of the Law?

The basics of the law state that, if a disabled person is qualified to perform the tasks associated with the job, the business does not have the right not to hire them for that specific position. Doing so is a form of discrimination under The Americans with Disabilities Act. Furthermore, if this person must not be hindered from performing the duties associated with the position they were hired for based upon the fact that they are disabled. This is another form of discrimination that is not tolerated under the 1990 act. If termination occurs based upon their disability, then the business is also discriminating against this person.

Provisions Does Not Mean Special Treatment

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 does not mean the employee requires special treatment or does not fall victim to standard company downsizing. For example, if the employee is not performing up to par or meeting expectations alongside other employees who are not performing well on evaluations, they must be held accountable in the same way. As with company downsizing, businesses are not expected to keep a person on the payroll just because they are disabled. If the company is required to cut an entire department and some of those people on the payroll are disabled, then that is what must occur. For those businesses that are truly concerned about these matters, they should get in touch with law firms like www.parmelelawfirm.com with their questions.

Obtaining a Lawyer for a Disability CaseObtaining a Lawyer for a Disability Case

Applying to social security is something that is not for those with thin skin, as it is a long process that can take a huge amount of time. Furthermore, there are a massive amount of steps that must be taken and done in the right manner, or else there is very little chance that you are going to win your case. The typical steps to applying for social security involve going out and getting yourself a great attorney to represent you. Do not skip this part, as you really do need an attorney that really knows what they are doing and dedicates the bulk of their time to social security cases. You would not want to hire an attorney that deals with a ton of different cases, as you really want to find a lawyer that specializes in disability and social security cases.

You are going to have to put in your application, which is basically a general application at first. Unless you are missing a limb, or have a huge disability that can be seen by the eye and apparent, you are going to get denied. Once you get denied, you have to go through a process of appealing several times, which is going to then include going to any doctor that you have seen in the past, gathering up a ton of different documents that prove that you are disabled, and you will have to prove this to the court. There are a lot of formalities that are involved in applying for social security, most of which are used to weed out people that are not really disabled. The reason why it is like this is the fact that there are so many people that are putting in applications for social security benefits that the system really is overwhelmed.

The great thing is, if you do get a highly qualified lawyer, such as the attorneys at Myler Disability, they will be able to walk you through each step. Chances are you will get your disability if you can prove to a judge that you are too disabled to do the type of work that you have done in the past to bring in a paycheck. You do not have the burden of proving that you can’t do any job at all, but that you can’t do the type of work that you have done in the past, which is different in each and every situation and case. Your lawyer will help you to pull up the documents and proof that you need and will help you build a case that you will eventually take in front of a judge, who will hopefully sign off and grant you the benefits you deserve.

Compliance with Obama CareCompliance with Obama Care

In case you haven’t already heard, Obamacare is now in effect. But what exactly is it? This was a piece of legislation that was signed into law, four years ago now, back in March 2010. One of the goals of the legislation was to increase the quality as well as affordability of health insurance for individuals who weren’t otherwise given the opportunity for coverage.

Some of the benefits of Obamacare include: individuals being able to stay on a family’s health plan until they reach the age of 26, stopping insurance companies from dropping you if you get sick, prevent against gender discrimination, preventing insurance companies from making unjustified jumps in rates, doing away with annual limits, expand coverage to a lot more individuals, subsidize the cost of health insurance and prevent insurance companies from denying you for coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Sounds pretty good right? Another benefit is that emergency care, hospitalization, prescription drugs, maternity and newborn care be included in all plans with no annual limit. Furthermore, preventative services such as yearly check-ups, immunizations, counseling and screenings must be provided at no out of pocket cost to the patient. Since this is the case, some individuals such as high income earners, large businesses and the healthcare industry will have additional taxes to help pay for all of this. So if you are overly rich, you might not appreciate it all that much.

So as with any law and legislation there are compliances rules that we need to follow. Obamacare is no exception. So how can you and I be compliant with the new law? As fellow citizens we must obtain health insurance by the end of this year so by December of 2014, get an exemption, or pay a per month fee as a penalty for non compliance. This fee for not having insurance is $95 per adult plus $47.50 per child unless you have a family in which case you are capped at $285 per month. Or the government can fine you 1% of your income if that is greater. Keep in mind the rates I just mentioned are simply for this year, 2014. Next year instead of paying $95 per adult, the fee jumps up to $325! So rather than not complying why don’t you sign up for a plan because chances are you will be paying less than that per month and be receiving health coverage! Health care related costs are so expensive that I don’t see why you wouldn’t want health insurance to help you offset the bill. So in order to comply with the new law you need to be signed up for health insurance by the deadline of March 31st so time is ticking away.

If you are looking for additional insurance on top of health insurance perhaps you could go off own your own and sign up with a third party insurance company. rogersgray.com is a great option. They offer some great options for auto insurance, homeowners insurance and marie insurance to help better insure your other assets. Give them a call today.