The 2nd and 3rd FMLA certifications-An Employer's Ace in the Hole

If a company is not happy with the adequacy of the initial FMLA certification, they can request additional information. There are provisions under the FMLA where employers can require an employee to obtain a second medical opinion at the employer’s expense. And then, if there’s a disagreement between health care providers, the law provides for a third opinion from a health care provider agreed upon by the employer and the employee which would then be binding in terms of whether or not the certification is valid or not for FMLA purposes. Often times, it is worth it to obtain additional opinions of a FMLA certification.

Reasons to require the second FMLA certification

If you get certification from somebody that allegedly has a heart condition and yet, the certification is signed by his chiropractor, that that might be a good reason to require another opinion. Likewise, if somebody receives the certification for a some sort of mental impairment and the certification is by a family practitioner, a non-specialist, someone who does not specialize in mental illness, that’s a situation that you might want to take another look at.

It doesn’t look right, for example, if an employee is complaining a back condition, for example. If it just doesn’t look right to you, because you’ve never seen any indication that this employee has had a back condition. It’s never come up before. If you have a good reason to question it, then you can require a second opinion. When there’s a reason and they certainly should be used as a tool when you think that there’s possibility of an abuse.

FMLA certification is a very important tool for policing intermittent leave.

With your own employees, if they have to be put out of pocket for doctor visits, they might reconsider whether or not it’s worth it to pursue something that might not be a legitimate claim.

There’s another hidden benefit of being aggressive. For a large industrial employers or employers that have large work forces, let’s see who the doctors are that are signing these certifications. Particularly in light of industrial situations, if you are a industrial park, there’s manufacturing situations, lots of times there are doctors nearby who the employees rely upon and you if see lots of signatures by the same doctors, signing these forms, then that might be another factor to look at, to determine whether or not something is just not quite up to snuff.