Disclosing cancer to employer while in high ranking position -- yay or nay?

by Alice McKenney
filed under Cancer, disclose, High, In, Job, News, Ranking, The

 

Whether or not to disclose your cancer to your employer often depends on the situation. Prognosis, extent of treatment, and accommodations needed are just a few things to consider. However, do things change at all if you're in a high ranking position?

This issue is a current and controversial one for people in the UK. Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a member of the British Parliament from 1987 to 2001. In 1997, she was appointed to the position of Secretary of State of Northern Ireland. Right before this appointment she publicly announced that she had a benign brain tumor. Shortly thereafter in 2001, she retired from politics, and then passed away in 2005. 

Mo Mawlam, courtesy of The Observer

 Why is this relevant you might ask? Well, it has only come to light in the past few weeks that Mo's tumor wasn't benign at all - it was malignant and terminal. Only three people knew this truth until now: Mo, her husband, and her doctor. Responses to this news flash have ranged from calling her courageous for continuing in her difficult position, to calling her a liar for not telling her constituents the real story. Also, while her doctor was legally bound not to say anything, he had strongly advised her to tell the administration about her cancer (but she still chose not to).

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a US Supreme Court Justice, did just the opposite. When she was diagnosed with colon cancer 10 years ago, the public knew. When she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a year ago, the public knew. And to top it off she worked through all of it.

Mo was quite lucky that her cancer treatments did not interfere with her day-to-day work life, but most people are not so lucky. What would you have done in this situation? Was it her duty to come clean with the truth? Or do you think she went about it the right way?

Also check out these other articles about Mo, as well as some resources that we have on the topic:
Keeping Cancer Undercover (via @stales on Twitter)
How Mo Mawlam misled Tony Blair for nine years about her killer cancer
Should You Tell
What To Tell
Who To Tell
 

Beauty of Giving luncheon

by Alice McKenney
filed under beauty, CEW, Event, Fundraiser, Giving, luncheon, of

 

The annual Cancer and Careers/CEW Foundation Beauty of Giving luncheon was held last week at the Waldorf=Astoria in NYC. The luncheon honored Leslie Blodgett, CEO of Bare Escentuals for her extraordinary achievement in uniting business with philanthropy. Blodgett’s commitment to Cancer and Careers has been expressed through a variety of creative cause marketing partnerships, a corporate philanthropy program called B.E. Cares, and a commitment to cultivating a community of support.

 The event was a great success with revenue totaling $515,650, and with all net proceeds supporting Cancer and Careers' initiatives and resources such as:

 

• Cancer and Careers’ community outreach programming

• The Elizabeth Jerrett support group for cancer survivors

• Cancer and Careers’ interactive online career coaching for employees with cancer

• Cancer and Careers’ On the Go Survival Guide series

• Resources for companies and coworkers

 

The Beauty of Giving luncheon was generously sponsored by: 

Happy Thanksgiving from Cancer and Careers

by Alice McKenney
filed under Go, guides, holiday, Nutrition, On, orzo, recipe, thanksgiving, The

 

Cancer and Careers would like to wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving is about two things: giving thanks and eating. So I thought I would share one of the recipes from our Nutrition On The Go Guide that is specially formulated for cancer patients and survivors.  It makes a great side dish!

Orzo Salad

16 oz. package of orzo pasta

10 oz. baby spinach, washed and chopped

1/2 lb. crumbled feta cheese

1/2 red onion, chopped

3/4 cup pine nuts

Chopped fresh basil to taste

Ground pepper to taste

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Cook orzo 8 to 10 minutes, rinse with cold water.  Mix all ingredients in a big bowl; serve. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

May alleviate constipation, dry mouth or difficulty swallowing.

To order a free On The Go Guide set, please click here.

Busy travel week for CAC

by Alice McKenney
filed under Austin, Francisco, LIVESTRONG, ONS, San, Tampa, Travel, YAA

 

This week various members of the Cancer and Careers team are traveling all over the US for great conferences and seminars. They include:

• The Balancing Cancer and Careers community seminar in San Francisco, CA on the 10th
• The Livestrong Young Adult Alliance conference in Austin, TX on the 12th and 13th
• The Oncology Nursing Society's Institutes of Learning Conference in Tampa, FL on the 13th and 14th

If you are attending any of these events keep your eyes peeled for CAC staff members. And don't forget to visit our blog again next week for recaps from these events.
 

CAC shines during Breast Cancer Awareness month

by Alice McKenney
filed under Awareness, Breast, Cancer, Martha, Month, PSA, SELF, Shape, Stewart

 

We are thrilled to announce that Cancer and Careers has a presence in not one, not two, but THREE popular magazines this October!

- SELF Magazine has granted us a full page PSA on p. 71, and we've also created some buzz for our Beauty.com partnership (more info on this exciting relationship to come)
- Shape Magazine has a full-page Cancer and Careers PSA on p. 14 of the breast health handbook in their October issue
- Martha Stewart Living has us listed as one of only five recommended cancer websites on p. 42

Check out these mags on your local newsstand today. And don't forget, Cancer and Careers is your resource for working through any type of cancer.

Have you seen our Charts & Checklists?

by Alice McKenney
filed under charts, checklists, doctor’s, forms, questions, website

 

Working through cancer is hard enough. To top it off, you have to keep everything in order, from doctor’s appointments to medications to insurance. It can be exhausting!

That’s why we have our Charts and Checklists page, offering a wide array of free downloadable documents to help get you organized. Having trouble keeping track of medications? Check out the Prescription Drug log. Going in for treatment soon but don’t know what to expect? Look at the Questions to Ask section, which has ideas for questions to ask your doctor about chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and so much more. Have a treatment coming up but aren’t sure how to prepare for it? Check out Things to Bring to Treatment, and Preparing Your Home for After Treatments.

Have you used any of our charts and checklists (most of which are also in our Living and Working with Cancer handbook)? How have they been useful? And if you haven’t used them, tell us how you keep everything organized!

Meet the Cancer and Careers Staff! Part 1 of 4

by Alice McKenney
filed under Alice, assistant, foundation, mckenney, meet, staff, The

 

Did you know there are only 4 members of the Cancer and Careers staff? Most don't! So we thought we would introduce ourselves.

I'm first! I am the Foundation Assistant, and have been working here for just shy of a year. I touch all of the departments here at CAC (programming, development, etc.) but where my name is probably most recognized from is that I manage all of CAC's social media including (but not limited to) Facebook and Twitter. Come say hi! Outside of the CAC sphere, I play flute in a community orchestra, like watching 'quality' TV shows (Bravo is my channel of choice right now), and love hosting dinner parties.

Next time -- meet Devon Slauenwhite, our Director of Development!

www.facebook.com/cancerandcareers
www.twitter.com/cancerandcareer

Ticket to Ride

by Alice McKenney
filed under cancercare, Door, grant, multiple, myeloma, to, transportation

 

New CancerCare program defrays transportation costs

Getting from work to treatment and back home again will get easier for some patients with multiple myeloma, thanks to CancerCare's new "Door to Door" program. Under the new effort, announced July 20, CancerCare, a New York-based nonprofit, will offer individual grants of up to $600 a year to patients with multiple myeloma who need help with transportation expenses associated with getting to and from medical care. That includes gas costs as well as taxi, bus or train fare. Potential applicants may view the application form, including financial criteria, at www.cancercare.org. The grant program is funded partially by Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company. About 20,000 people per year in the U.S. receive a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer.

To receive a Door to Door transportation grant, patients must meet certain eligibility criteria and complete an application form. A sample patient application form along with a physician verification form may be viewed online. To apply, call 1-800-813-HOPE (4673).

Trend: Longer Chemotherapy -- How will it affect your work?

by Alice McKenney
filed under Cancer, cancercare, chemotherapy, FMLA, lymphoma, maintenance, multiple, myeloma, non-Hodgkin's, NY, ovarian, therapy, Times

 

Chemotherapy is increasingly being given as "maintenance" therapy, continuing the regimen even after the cancer is under control, as a preventive strategy, according to a recent report in the New York Times. This approach is being used for ovarian cancer, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Here, Rosalie Canosa, a licensed clinical social worker and program division director at CancerCare, weighs in on what effects this trend may have in the workplace.

*If your oncologist suggests maintenance chemotherapy, you may need to work during the treatment or ask for additional time off under laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to undergo the extra chemo sessions and to take more recovery time. You may also need to request more accommodation, such as a flexible schedule. (Before deciding on maintenance chemo, ask your oncologist for evidence that the specific chemo suggested has been shown to work well to prevent relapse.)

*You may face increased out-of-pocket costs. "Some of these maintenance drugs are very expensive," Canosa says, ''and some people have lifetime caps [for coverage] on policies.'' You may need to research special assistance programs for help with payments if your policy doesn't cover enough or any of the extra chemo.

Employers, for their part, should anticipate that this trend will affect their workforce in the future. Employers should consider researching in advance to find or supply sources of financial help for these workers, and they should anticipate requests for additional accommodations.

The Times' article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/health/21canc.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th
 

Your Legal Questions Answered - part 2

by Alice McKenney
filed under adult, CLRC, COBRA, college, health, help, Insurance, law, legal, Michelle's, young

 

As mentioned in the last blog, Joanna Morales, Director of the Cancer Legal Resource Center, was the speaker at our recent "Legal and Insurance Questions Answered" conference. See below for some more of her responses to popular questions:

I have a question about young adults. Full-time college students with a cancer diagnosis are covered by their parents plan, but then may need to stop school in order to have their cancer treatment, causing their parent's plans drop them. Are they in anyway eligible for COBRA through that plan?

Last year we had a federal law passed called Michelle's Law and it was created specifically to address that situation. Previously in order to stay on a parent's policy after a child has graduated from high school, the clause in the parent's policy typically says that children have to maintain full-time student status in order to be eligible for coverage under their policy. So even if a student was diagnosed with a serious medical condition, they would have to keep a full load of classes in order to keep their health insurance. Michelle's Law which was passed last year says that a child with a serious medical condition gets an additional year of health insurance coverage and they don't have to maintain their full-time student status. Once that year of coverage expires, if the student still isn't able to return to full-time student status, then they are eligible for COBRA coverage for up to 36 months.

If your new job has an exclusionary or waiting period where your benefits don't start until after three months and you continue COBRA, does the COBRA count towards your creditable coverage* time?

Yes, your COBRA does count towards your creditable coverage time, and also that 90-day waiting period for eligibility of benefits is very common at a new employer. The benefit to that is if your employer imposes a six-month exclusion period on the new health insurance plan, the three months that you're waiting to get eligibility for benefits actually counts towards your exclusionary period. Also, as long as you don’t have a break longer than 63 days, you could be on active treatment and it won’t affect the creditable coverage.

* Creditable coverage is any previous period of health insurance coverage that was not interrupted by a break in coverage of more than 63 days. For more information please click here: http://www.cancerlegalresourcecenter.org/documents/HEALTHINSURANC1.pdf

Do you need more personalized legal help? Contact the CLRC at www.cancerlegalresourcecenter.org.
 

Are you a healthcare professional? Then take the CLRC's survey so that they can provide relevant info to you in the future. The survey is located here.

Your Legal Questions Answered - part 1

by Alice McKenney
filed under CLRC, COBRA, help, HIPAA, HIPP, Insurance, legal

The Cancer Legal Resource Center (CLRC), mentioned in a previous blog, is a fountain of information for those who need cancer-related legal counseling. Joanna Morales, Esq. is the Director of the CLRC. She spoke at our "Legal and Insurance Questions Answered" teleconference. Many relevant questions came up during that conference, so please see below for some of the more popular ones:

Can you utilize a HIPAA plan if COBRA is available to you?
In order to be eligible for a HIPPA plan, you have to have exhausted your COBRA coverage, so you wouldn't be able to jump straight to a HIPAA plan. If you don't use up your COBRA coverage, then HIPAA isn't an option for you, so you would be looking at something like a major risk plan or a high risk insurance pool or a Medicaid plan in your state or Medicare if you qualify for either of those programs, which is why it's so important to try to keep your COBRA coverage because that opens up possibilities that are available to you indefinitely.

What if you can't afford COBRA?

If you can't afford your COBRA plan, right now there is the [federal] subsidy. There is also the HIPP program in some states, where if you have an income and an asset level low enough to qualify you for Medicaid, you will actually get your health insurance premiums paid for you by Medicaid rather than having to actually going on to Medicaid. It's cheaper for the state to pay your private health insurance premiums than to pay for all of your care. So the HIPP program is one option that's available, and then there are a number of private organizations that do provide assistance with paying for COBRA premiums or co-pays. (For more information on these, please visit http://disabilityrightslegalcenter.org/about/documents/FinancialAssistanceNational.pdf)

Do you need more personalized legal help? Contact the CLRC at www.cancerlegalresourcecenter.org.
 

Are you a healthcare professional?  Then take the CLRC's survey so that they can provide relevant info to you in the future.  The survey is located here.

Telling Your Employer, part 3

by Alice McKenney
filed under accomodations, ADA, ask, Cancer, employer, reasonable, Work

Did you know an employer is not allowed to ask about your medical history, let alone if you have cancer? It's true! Your employer can only ask if you can perform the essential
functions of the job with or without a reasonable accommodation. And they can only make you take a medical exam if everyone else in your job category is required to do it as well. Not to mention that you can't be turned down for a new job unless the results of this medical exam show that you can't perform the essential functions of the position. For more information on Reasonable Accommodations in the Job Application Process, check out section I, C, 5 here: http://www.cancerlegalresourcecenter.org/documents/EMPLOYMENTRIGHTS.pdf
 

Parts 1 and 2 of this blog are located here and here.

Telling Your Employer, part 2

by Alice McKenney
filed under Cancer, coworker, employer, HR, tell, to, who, Work

If you do decide to tell your employer, the next question is who should you tell -- your boss, human resources, co-workers? And how should you handle it if you're the boss? The answer is different for everyone, but we can help you decide what's right for your individual situation in our article on Who To Tell: http://cancerandcareers.org/women/share_news/who_to_tell_when_you_have_cancer/. Comment and let us know who you told at your workplace!

Parts 1 and 3 of this blog post are located here and here.

Telling Your Employer, part 1

by Alice McKenney
filed under accomodation, ADA, Cancer, disclose, employer, reasonable, tell, Work

Someone recently asked me on Twitter: Do I have to disclose my cancer to a new employer? This is one of the most common questions that we get. The quick and simple answer is: no. However, you do have to tell if you are requesting reasonable accommodations in order to perform your basic duties. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which protects you from discrimination and requires your employer to provide reasonable accommodations doesn't apply if you haven't disclosed your diagnosis. For more on the ADA and what constitutes a "reasonable accommodation," click here or here.

And don't forget to check out parts 2 and 3 of this blog located here and here.

On-The-Go Guides

by Alice McKenney
filed under Fitness, Go, Guide, Make-Up, Nutrition, On, The

Everyone knows that all working women are time compressed. Working women with cancer take that to a whole new level with the added challenges and pressures of managing their treatment, personal responsibilities and work life simultaneously. We want to help.

We know that eating healthy on the go and fitting exercise into your hectic chemo/family/work schedule is hard. So we have a brand new resource for you -- On-the-Go Survival Guides! They are portable resources that offer practical, time-efficient advice – tailored for working women with cancer – on everything from what exercises you can do while you're going through radiation to make-up for a pale, sallow complexion. These guides are small enough to fit in your purse, but are chock full of information.

What exercises can you do at your desk? What foods relieve treatment side effects? And how in the world is 30 seconds enough time to put on make-up? Order these free guides and find out for yourself!

Feel free to post a comment to order, or visit our order page to pick and choose a sampling of all of our free publications.

Free housecleaning for women with cancer

by Alice McKenney
filed under a, cleaning, day, for, free, mother's, reason, service

Just in time for Mother's Day, there's Cleaning for a Reason--a non-profit that provides free professional housecleaning services to women undergoing cancer treatment. The concept is simple, but the payoff is huge. Simply put your zip code into their website to see if there are any cleaning services in your area that participate, and off you go. Visit them here: www.cleaningforareason.org.

 

Have you heard about any other organizations that provide free services to cancer patients and survivors? Leave a comment to let us know about them!