Geriatric Benefits & Leave

Benefits include:

• Call Quarters
• Insurance
  • Health Insurance
  • Disability Insurance
  • Life Insurance
  • COBRA Insurance
• Leave
  • Parental Leave
  • Sick Leave
  • Holidays
  • Educational Leave
  • Funeral Leave for Immediate Family
  • Military Leave
  • Other Leave
  • Compliance with Board Requirements for Absence from Training
• Malpractice
• Reimbursement for Professional Development Expenses (includes conferences and books)
• Other Benefits

Call Quarters

Erlanger provides comfortable call quarters for residents and fellows within the hospital.

Health Insurance
Carrier:  CIGNA HealthCare
CIGNA phone # to verify coverage:  800-564-7642
The plan is administered for us by:
    Gerald Holland Insurance Company
    P. O. Box 328
    Southhaven, MS  38671
    888-393-9500 (speak with Jerry Holland)

Premiums (Rates for July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009)
Below are the resident portions of the monthly health insurance premiums:
  

The University of Tennessee provides health and hospitalization insurance coverage for residents. The University pays the majority of the monthly premiums for either Individual, Resident//Fellow and Spouse, Resident/Fellow and Children, or Family coverage. 

Erlanger Health System facilities accept the amounts paid for covered services by the resident insurance plan once deductable amounts are met.  This provision covers both residents and their covered dependents.  Erlanger facilities include Erlanger Medical Center, T. C. Thompson Children's Hospital, Willie D. Miller Eye Center, Erlanger East and Women's East, and Erlanger North.

Please note:  The resident health insurance plan through CIGNA no longer has a contract with the Plaza Lab, located at Erlanger.  Since Erlanger is only a partial owner of that facility, the discount offered residents and dependents at Erlanger facilities does not extend to the Plaza Lab.  If your physician's office does not offer lab services within the office, lab work will need to be sent to Quest Laboratories.  In Chattanooga, Quest Labs have two locations:  one on Shallowford Road and the other at the Chattanooga Surgical Center on McCallie Avenue and Holtzclaw not too far from Erlanger.

The plan also provides for mental health and substance abuse benefits through CIGNA Behavioral Health.  Go to www.cignabehavioralhealth.com for details and covered providers.  Before going to any behavioral health provider (psychiatrist, psychologist, or counselor), the resident should contact the CIGNA Behavioral Health service line at 800-274-4573 and have them set up sessions and coordinate benefits.  The plan provides:

• 25 mental health days inpatient care per contract year (same benefits as regular inpatient hospital services)
• 25 individual mental health office visits/counseling sessions per contract year (with $15 co-pay), and
• 40 visits/sessions per contract year for group therapy (with same co-pay)

The plan also provides inpatient and outpatient substance abuse benefits.

Disability Insurance
The University provides $1,500 per month of tax-free disability benefits following 90-days of disability. Benefits are payable to age 65. This coverage cannot be cancelled by the insurance company and premiums are guaranteed level at your current age rates through age 65. Full benefits will be paid even if you collect from Social Security or workman's compensation.

In addition, this policy has a guaranteed issue of up to $3,500 per month for residents who choose additional coverage. You may elect additional coverage at employment or at completion of your residency. For your convenience, the additional coverage at your own expense may be payroll deducted.

To offset the cost of the basic long-term disability coverage ($1500 per month), the University adds $50 each month to the agreed upon stipend scale. Actual premiums depend on the resident's date of birth.

For additional information regarding your disability coverage, please contact:  John or Heath Hildreth with Hildreth Insurance Agency at (800) 874-0831 or hhildreth@hildrethins.com.  Their offices are located in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Life Insurance
Basic life insurance is provided in the amount of $100,000 and an additional $100,000 Accidental Death and Dismemberment Coverage.  The $45 added to the monthly stipend also helps offset the small monthly premium ($6.30) for this basic life insurance. This coverage is through Unum.  Your agent is:

Edwin W. Barnett
Barnett Benefits
1180 Vickery Lane, Suite 2
Cordova, TN 38018

E-mail: ebarnett@barnettbenefits.com

Continuation of Health Insurance via COBRA
Health insurance coverage after completion of training or or during an  unpaid leave of absents for a period up to 18 months may continue by paying the entire premium (employee and employer portion plus a small fee).

A detailed description of Public Law 99-272, Title X, requiring employers to offer continuation coverage is available in the Office of Graduate Medical Education and can be furnished upon request.

If you elect to enroll in continuation of coverage via COBRA, you must complete a COBRA Health Insurance application form and return to Tammy Fite in the Office of Graduate Medical Education.  The COBRA application can be found with other forms in the Online Handbooks section.

LEAVE

Parental Leave
Parental leave (maternity and paternity) is available to fellows for the birth or adoption of a child or foster care placement. Annual leave, sick leave, and holidays may be used in order that salary may be continued.  Any additional leave requested would be without pay. Fellows are entitled to family leave, including time without pay, for up to 12 weeks.  The fellow must give reasonable notice (30 days when the need for leave is foreseeable).  The Fellowship Program Director is responsible for determining whether the time off (in excess of vacation and holidays) would need to be made up at the end of training in accordance with board certification requirements.  The make-up time, if required, would be with pay.

Sick Leave
Fellows may be paid for up to 21 sick days per year (four weeks and one day); however, these cannot be carried over from year to year.   As soon as the fellow realizes he/she will be unable to work due to illness, he should contact his rotation attending, the rotation chief resident, and the Department of Family Medicine (extension 2957) to notify the Program Director of the illness. If unable to contact the departmental office, the fellow must page the attending on call for the practice. The fellow is expected to identify coverage for any clinical responsibilities. Every attempt should be made to avoid canceling patient appointments   The Program Director may request a physician's statement for periods of sick leave.  A fellow may not be paid for unused sick leave at the end of the year.  The determination as to whether or not the fellow will be required to make up time missed due to Sick Leave will be made by the Program Director, in accordance with fellowship requirements and board certification requirements.

Vacation
Each fellow is allowed three weeks (15 working days) of vacation each academic year, July to June. Vacation may not be more than one week for any one-month rotation. Some departments restrict vacation during certain rotations.  It is recommended that vacation should be taken in the first half of the academic year. Fellows are not guaranteed that they will receive all their vacation if requested in the last half of the year. An appropriate "Request for Time Away" form must be completed in order to request vacation. This form must be signed and approved by the Program Director and the faculty member supervising the rotation during which vacation is requested.  Vacation must be requested three months in advance. Vacation is granted on a first-come, first-approved basis. All fellows are required to be on campus the last two weeks of June. All administrative duties, including medical records, must be completed before any time off. Only the Program Director may make exceptions to these policies.
Late requests are unlikely to be considered. Vacation requests are due at the first of the year. The master schedule will be completed for a year & vacation changes need to be made three months in advance. Any exceptions to these policies need to be cleared by the Fellowship Program Director, Dr. John Standridge.

Most programs allow an additional few days off during the Christmas - New Year's season, given approval of the Program Director and Chair as well as coverage for patients.

Holidays
Residents/Fellows are granted the following nine holidays, observed by UT and Erlanger:

New Year's Day
Martin Luther King's Birthday
Good Friday
Memorial Day
Independence Day (July 4th)
Labor Day
Thanksgiving (two days)
Christmas Day

Each department handles scheduling holidays for their Residents/Fellows and it is up to the discretion of that Chair and/or Program Director as to which of the official holidays will be permitted in each department. Not all departments recognize all nine holidays.  The ultimate decision will be the chair's.  Remember that all Residents/Fellows cannot be off on the actual holiday, so you may have to take a substitute day later.  

Educational Leave
Residents/Fellows are able to take one week each year to attend outside regional or national conferences, including board review courses, given approval by the appropriate program director. The hospital provides reimbursement of conference and travel expenses, in accordance with University Travel guidelines, up to $1,750 annually. Outside conferences and time off must be approved in advance by the program director.

Funeral Leave

An employee who is absent during his/her regularly scheduled work week due to the death of a spouse, child or step-child, or parent or step-parent, may receive payment for reasonable and customary days absent, not to exceed five (5) regularly scheduled work days for bereavement in conjunction with attending the funeral. An employee who is absent for funeral and bereavement during his/her regularly scheduled work week due to the death of a grandparent, grandchild, parent-in-law, foster parent, brother, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, or son-in-law may receive payment for reasonable and customary days absent, not to exceed three (3) regularly scheduled work days.

Pay for each day of funeral and bereavement leave taken will be made at the employee's current rate of pay for a scheduled day's work not to exceed the hours for which the employee is normally scheduled to work, or his/her average hours worked per day (normal work week divided by 5), whichever is greater. Any holidays and days of administrative closing occurring during this time will be counted as part of the Funeral and Bereavement Leave and recorded as Holiday(s) and/or Day(s) of Administrative Closing pay.

Military Leave
The University provides time off without loss of pay for employees who are members of the reserve components of the Armed Forces of the United States or State National Guards (e.g., two week summer camp in the Tennessee National Guard). These University employees will receive normal compensation for a period not to exceed 15 working days in any one calendar year. The Resident/Fellow must coordinate the scheduling of this annual duty with his/her chief resident and Program Director or Chair, and the duty should not be scheduled during a required or critical rotation. If a University employee is called to active military service for an extended tour of duty, that individual will be placed on military leave on the effective date of the assumption of active military duty and will be returned to the employment of the University at the end of the active duty.

Personal Leave
A limit of six Personal days may be granted to attend to personal needs each year. A fellow may not use a Personal day on either a Monday or a Friday. Any exceptions to this must be cleared by the Program Director, Dr. Standridge. Personal days cannot be taken on an office day. A one-week notice must be given. A form requesting a Personal day must be signed by the attending physician and Dr. Standridge, then submitted to the Department of Family Medicine office. The Request for Time Away form will have a space for the fellow to indicate who will cover for him when patients call or in case of emergencies. That space must be signed by the individual who is covering. A fellow may not take more than one Personal day in a given month.

Moonlighting
All moonlighting activities, including location and duty times, must have prior approval by the Program Director. This information must be kept on file by the Prograam Coordinator. It is the fellow's responsibility to update this when there are changes. Geriatrics Medicine Felllows are not allowed to moonlight without a full and unrestricted license in Tennessee, and without the prior approval of the Program Director, Dr. Standridge.  Fellows are responsible for their own professional liability insurance coverage when moonlighting.  Regular duties and on-call schedule must be attended to before consideration of moonlighting. A fellow should never obligate themselves to an extent that moonlighting becomes a necessity or interferes with personal time, family time, or raining. The department reserves the right to discontinue a resident's permission to moonlight.

Other Leave of Absence
A Resident/Fellow may request a Leave of Absence for other, personal reasons. Given approval of the Program Director or Chair, the Resident/Fellow may utilize any combination of paid time off to continue salary for as long as benefits are available. Leave beyond paid time off will be at no salary. Efforts will be made to hold a position for up to three months, given funding availability from the primary affiliated institution (providing funding). Once the Resident/Fellow returns from leave, the Program Director will determine the amount of time which will need to be added at the end of training and any changes, if necessary, to promotion schedules, in accordance with the program requirements and board certification requirements. Any time added to the training will be with pay.

An employee may be required to furnish verification of the reason for the absence upon request of his/her Chair/Program Director and/or the Office of Graduate Medical Education.

Compliance with Board Requirements for Absence from Training
It is the responsibility of each Program Director to determine the effect of absence from training for any reason on the individual's educational program and, if necessary, to establish make-up requirements that meet the Board requirements of the specialty.

Malpractice
As employees of the State of Tennessee, residents are protected against suits for malpractice via the Tennessee Claims Commission Act. The State is self-insured so there is no insurance carrier; however, coverage is similar to what would be stated in coverage is similar to what would be stated in an insurance policy.

Reimbursement for Professional Development Expenses
Erlanger Medical Center will reimburse each fellow up to a total of $1,750 for annual professional educational develoopment expenses such as outside educational conferences and travel or medical books.  The formal policy defines allowable expenses.

Other Benefits

• Coats (white, monogrammed coats each year)
• Meals (at no charge, 24 hours a day, seven days a week)
• Parking (at no charge in the hospital parking garage)
• Relocation to Chattanooga (reimbursement of up to $1000
• Hepatitis B immunization (if needed)
• PDAs provided by Erlanger at no charge
• Alpha pagers provided by Erlanger at no charge
• Medical Library access (24/7 at Erlanger and access from home via internet)
• Copies at no charge in the Medical Library
• Notary service at no charge
• Resident/Fellow and spouse organizations
• On-site child care available at Erlanger e-Kids (on a space available basis)
• Local UTCOMC CME conferences (registration at no charge for residents)

Updated 7/2008