Opioid Crisis Pushes Employers to Think Beyond Standard Benefit

The ballooning opioid crisis is hitting employers hard on multiple fronts: Employees dealing with addiction are reluctant to be upfront about their need for leave or accommodation because of the stigma, and federal leave options don’t address the reality of the ways workers are affected.

When workers need to take leave related to opioid addiction, they often only go into as much detail as they need for authorization, Henry C. Eickelberg, a senior fellow with the American Health Policy Institute, told Bloomberg Law. “Employers are only entitled to a certain level of information to approve” leave under the Family and ...