After a request for accommodation by an employee, employers often require a medical inquiry form completed by the employee’s medical provider. So long as the inquiry meets the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA’s) requirement that medical inquiries be job-related and consistent with business necessity, this is a good way to start the ADA interactive process.
Employers are entitled to know that an employee has a covered disability that requires a reasonable accommodation. Thus, when the disability or the need for the accommodation is not known or obvious, it is job-related and consistent with business necessity for an employer to ask an employee for reasonable documentation about their disability and its functional limitations that require reasonable accommodation.
There are several reasons employers should require an employee’s medical provider to fill out a medical inquiry form after a request for accommodation.
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A medical inquiry form allows employers to confirm via a medical provider that the employee has a qualifying disability. This is important because only employees who have a disability or a record of a disability are entitled to accommodations under the ADA.
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The medical inquiry form gives employers a better understanding of the nature of an employee’s functional limitations and how those limitations are interfering with job performance.
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Given the employee’s particular limitations, the form allows medical providers to suggest some types of reasonable accommodations that might allow the employee to continue to perform the essential functions of their job.
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The form creates documentation that employers can use to defend their actions in the future should the need arise.
But often, even when employers provide the medical inquiry form to employees, the employee never follows through with returning the form, and employers are left in limbo. So, what should employers do?
While there is no legally required time frame for an employee to return a medical inquiry form under the ADA, the best practice is to give the employee a deadline of 15 days to return the requested documentation — the same amount of time employees have under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Giving this time frame will let the employee know that an employer is taking its legal duty to engage in a timely, good faith, interactive process seriously. But, because there is no legally required time frame, employers need to have some flexibility. For example, an employer can’t refuse to engage in the interactive process or will still need to provide accommodation if the employee returns the medical inquiry documentation after the employer-provided deadline.
Employees may have trouble getting in to see their medical provider in a short time frame, so HR may want to check in with the employee and adjust deadlines or grant extensions as necessary and document all communication efforts. Ultimately though, if an employee does not respond to an employer’s valid request for medical inquiry documentation, then the employee has not fulfilled their obligations pursuant to the ADA, and the employer may not have a legal obligation to provide accommodations.
Employers Council members looking for more information on the medical inquiry form can access this whitepaper. Consulting and Enterprise members that have questions or need additional information can reach out to an Employers Council attorney.
Dusty Brown is an attorney for Employers Council.