IU-sponsored Personal Health Record
Indiana University is pleased to announce a partnership with NoMoreClipboard to provide a voluntary Personal Health Record, or PHR, for employees enrolled in a medical plan. The PHR is an online, portable tool controlled by the employee. It allows employees to create an account to compile, manage, and share personal health information with physicians and other care providers of their choice in a secure, protected location. Employees can also authorize PHR accounts for family members.
The IU-sponsored PHR allows employees to:
- Securely access medical information via the web 24x7x365.
- Document medical history, medications, immunizations, medical provider list, family medical history, plan information, etc.
- Send medical history and other “paperwork” to the doctor’s office ahead of scheduled visits.
- Accept electronic information back from a doctor's office, like lab results.
- Scan documents such as living wills and power of attorney to store electronically.
- Authorize accounts for family members to help organize medical information, immunizations for a child's school, etc.
Because the PHR is designed to interface with other healthcare applications, such as physician electronic medical record systems, it can increase the legibility, accuracy, and completeness of medical information. This improves communication and coordination of care, and reduces medical errors and unnecessary costs. The PHR is also important in helping employees manage medical services and care over the course of a lifetime and to connect medical records between family members and providers.
The voluntary PHR will be available to IU employees August 2012.
Fair Labor Standards Act “Red Flags”
Indiana University is committed to complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and continuously looks for opportunities to increase awareness of potential problems. Unless exempt for FLSA overtime provisions, employees are responsible for accurately recording all hours actually worked. Managers and supervisors are responsible for ensuring that employees are paid in accordance with FLSA regulations, Indiana ghost employment laws, and IU policies—and need to be mindful of the “Red Flags” below.
Employees in non-exempt (overtime eligible) positions cannot work without pay
- Hours worked in excess of 40 in a work week must be paid at time-and-a-half rate either in the form of pay or compensatory time off. The method of payment must be communicated prior to work being completed.
- When an employee performs any work, including such duties as monitoring the phones or web—and the university benefits from the work—the employee must be paid.
Time records must reflect actual hours worked
- Employees should record and be paid for all hours worked, including work performed remotely or via an electronic device.
- Employee time sheets that consistently reflect the same hours worked each day may be a sign that the employee is not reporting actual arrival and departure times.
- Employees (not managers or other employees) should report their actual time worked. Managers should keep corrections to an employee's time record to a minimum; it is a violation of FLSA to make edits to avoid paying overtime.
Internships are not free labor
- When the university benefits from work done by an “intern,” the person must be paid at least minimum wage and overtime compensation for any hours worked over 40 in a work week. Units should contact University Human Resources to determine if an unpaid internship can be considered.
Position Descriptions do not make a position exempt from FLSA overtime
- Exemption from overtime pay is based on actual work.
- Accurate and clear position descriptions make it possible to classify a position correctly.
Employees in non-exempt jobs cannot be paid a flat dollar amount
- Non-exempt employees must be paid a bona-fide hourly rate for each job and all hours worked for the University. Contact University Human Resources if there are questions about setting a bona fide hourly rate.
For additional information refer to hr.iu.edu/relations/compliance.html#ot.
Investment Fees for Retirement Plans
Most retirement plans sponsored by Indiana University are self-directed plans that require participants to select investment funds for their retirement account(s). Every Fidelity and TIAA-CREF fund available in these plans includes an expense associated with:
- Investment management service
- Record-keeping services
- Participant and initiation services
Collectively, these fees are referred to as the total annual operating expense and are expressed as a percentage known as the expense ratio. The expense ratio is subtracted from the returns and the net return is credited to participant accounts.
An example of services provided to IU-sponsored retirement plan participants as a result of the fees listed above include the following:
- Public website, with secure log-in access
- Access to online retirement tools
- Phone center participant service
- Access to phone retirement planning consultants
- Access to on-campus retirement planning consultants
- Investment fund management
- Quarterly statements
Fidelity and TIAA-CREF investment fund fee information is conveniently available at:
Telephone
- Fidelity Investments 1-800-343-0860
- TIAA-CREF 1-800-842-2273
Web
- Fidelity Investments (must have a user name and password) www.mysavingsatwork.com/atwork/iu.htm
- TIAA-CREF
www.tiaa-cref.org/indiana
IU-sponsored retirement plans do not include the investment fees listed below.
| Front-end load fees | A sales charge assessed at the time of purchase |
| Back-end load fees | A sales charge when funds are sold during the first few years of ownership |
| Commissions | Compensation paid to a broker or other company representative for his/her role in the purchase of an investment fund |
| Wrap fee | An additional fee added to the Total Annual Operating Expense for services provided to the retirement plan |
Tobacco Use and Health
Cigarette Smoking and Teens
New research on the damaging effects of nicotine on the adolescent brain and statistical connections indicates that smoking by teens may well signal the fire of alcohol and other drug abuse and mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders.
Compared to people who have never smoked, those who begin smoking by age 12 are:
- More than 3 times likelier to binge drink
- Almost 7 times likelier to use other illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin
- Almost 5 times likelier to meet the medical criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence
- 16 times likelier to meet the medical criteria for marijuana abuse or dependence
Teens who start smoking early are more likely to report symptoms of mental illness such as hopelessness, depression and worthlessness. Smokers ages 12 to 17 are twice as likely as nonsmokers to suffer from symptoms of depression. This is of particular concern among girls and young women—they can be more susceptible both to nicotine's effects on the brain and mental illness, particularly depression.
Source: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. (2007). Tobacco: The Smoking Gun.
