Louisiana Provides Unpaid Leave for Some Health Screenings

Follow us on LinkedIn to see future News.

Karen Edginton Milner Patricia Tsipras

August 3, 2023

Effective August 1, 2023, Louisiana amended its Employment Discrimination Law to require employers of 20 or more employees to provide employees with leave for one day to undergo genetic testing and preventive cancer screening.  Though the law does not require an employer to provide leave with pay, employers must allow employees to use accrued vacation time or other paid leave so that they receive pay for this day of leave.  The law also prohibits discrimination and retaliation against employees who take such leave.  See Act No. 210.

Reasons for Which Employees Can Use the Leave

Medically Necessary Testing
Employees may use the new leave to obtain “medically necessary” testing.

• The Act defines “medically necessary” as healthcare services that are “in accordance with generally accepted evidence-based medical standards or that are considered by most physicians or independent licensed practitioners within the community of their respective professional organizations to be the standard of care.”
• Further, to be considered medically necessary, testing should be “deemed reasonably necessary to diagnose, correct, cure, alleviate, or prevent the worsening of a condition or conditions that endanger life, cause suffering or pain, or have resulted or will result in a handicap, physical deformity, or malfunction, and those for which no equally effective and less costly course of treatment is available or suitable for the recipient.”
• The Act does not provide leave for services that are investigational, cosmetic, or deemed experimental by the Federal Drug Administration.

Preventive Cancer Screening
The Act defines “preventive cancer screening” as “healthcare services necessary for the detection of cancer in an individual, including but not limited to magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, or some combination of tests.”

Employee Notice Requirements
Employees who wish to use the leave should provide their employer with at least 15 days’ advance notice.  They should make a reasonable effort to schedule the leave to have as little impact as possible on the employer’s operations.

If requested, employees must provide proof to their employers that the testing or screening occurred.  However, employees are not required to disclose to their employers the results of the testing.  Such a request from an employer would violate this law, as well as the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

Employer Notice Requirements
The Louisiana Workforce Commission will prepare a notice regarding Act 210, which must be posted in a conspicuous location in the employer’s place of business.

Employer Takeaways
Louisiana employers should ensure that their managers and supervisors understand the details of the new law.  They also should update their leave policy to include the new one-day leave of absence.  Once the notice becomes available from the Louisiana Workforce Commission, employers should post a copy of it on their premises.

*Special thanks to Brooke Palma, our Office Administrator, for her contributions to this article.

This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice.  Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.