Home Health & Hospice Week

Maxim Healthcare Services is getting more bad press, this time due to a labor law lawsuit settlement.

The Columbia, Md.-based national home care chain will pay $160,000 and send a letter of condolence to the survivors of former Maxim nurse Anne Whitledge. Before the St. Paul, Minn. nurse died of brain cancer last year, she filed a lawsuit via the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saying that Maxim firing her in 2009 violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to press reports.

The case has been watched carefully by labor law experts, since it may have a big impact on how employers treat their employees who have cancer and other illnesses. The case makes clear that employees with such illnesses will receive ADA protections.

"This decision demonstrates the [government's] commitment to aggressive enforcement of the ADA," Doug Christensen, attorney with Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis, told the St. Paul Star Tribune. "It shows employers the importance of engaging in an individualized, interactive process with employees who are potentially disabled."

In Whitledge's suit, she said privately owned Maxim would not let her return to work after an eight-week medical leave following her brain cancer diagnosis, according to the Star Tribune.

That was even though she had a doctor's clearance to return to work. Maxim said the firing was legally justified because Whitledge was unable to perform her job and because she presented a "direct threat" to the health and safety of herself or others.

Background: The ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodations so a disabled individual can continue working.

Maxim's $160,000 pay-out is a drop in the bucket compared to the $150 million fraud settlement it recently announced (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XX, No. 33, p. 258). But this settlement is arguably worse reputationally, judging from numerous reader comments about the story on news websites.