#94 Panicking about Required Posters?

Are you receiving mailings to purchase labor posters to verify your compliance? Are you confused about what you actually need? The Compliance Divas will share with listens how to find these posters at no cost on the federal and state government websites.

• Elaw Poster Advisor - https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/posters.htm
• OSHA Job Safety and Health Poster   https://www.osha.gov/publications/poster
• Tennessee State Posters. https://www.tn.gov/workforce/general-resources/major-publications0/major-publications-redirect/posters-redirect/required-posters.html
• Florida State Posters. https://www.floridajobs.org/business-growth-and-partnerships/for-employers/display-posters-and-required-notices

                                                 https://www.thecompliancedivas.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome. I'm Leslie Cannon. I'm Mary Gavoni.

SPEAKER_03 0:09

I'm Linda Harvey. I'm Olivia Juan, and together we are the Compliance Divas. My name is Olivia Juan, and I'm with the Compliance Divas. Welcome to this week's podcast. It's that time of year that we start receiving all of these mailings with scary language and texts indicating alert, mandatory federal poster change. So is this a scam or is it real? Perhaps you've received some of these mailings. I know I have in my practice. But these poster companies, they lead you to believe that you have to buy their posters in order to get into compliance. And then they'll say something like to get your new poster. So what is the truth in an all? Do we have to buy these posters from companies like this? Well, let's talk to the compliance divas. The compliance divas bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. Please subscribe to the compliance divas podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website at the compliancedevas.com. Any resources we mention during this episode can be found on our website. You can also submit your questions to support at the compliancedivas.com. So what's the truth in it all about these posters? We know that we are required to display federal and state labor posters, and of course, any other local, municipal or state posters as well. But first of all, I want to clear up about this new federal law poster, which what they're referring to is the new federal EEOC poster, uh referred to as know your rights, workplace discrimination is illegal. But it was actually published back in October. So it's really not that new uh first of the year as it implies. So some years we don't even have new posters, and yet you will continue to receive these mailers saying you have to get into compliance. So let's first talk to Mary about the federal posters and just exactly what is required that we display. Mary. Thanks, Olivia.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

And the answer to what exactly is required is it depends. It depends on what state your business is located in. It depends on a number of factors set forth under the Fair Labor Practices Act. And I'm glad that you mentioned these mailings that come because I get a lot of questions, and it just really makes me angry that people are charging, in some cases, some pretty high fees to renew these posters every year. Now, granted, they look pretty, they're laminated, they're all organized, but many of those posters may not even apply to a specific practice. So we have a really easy resource that we will put in the show notes and on our website that you can go to, which is called the e-laws poster advisor. And this is from the Department of Labor on a federal level. And you can go into this website and you put you answer questions about your um business, about your practice, and where you're where where you're located and what's the the income from the practice, kind of a gross income. Um, do you have any federal contracts, any of those types of things? And it will tell you which posters apply to you. It will also link you to your State Department of Labor so that you know which state posters apply to you. And all of these posters can be downloaded and printed for free. Now it's interesting to note these mailings that you may get from these companies. Um, many of them were sued a number of years ago. Um, and because they they made it sound like you had to buy them from them or you're going to have a $10,000 fine and all these things. Now they have to put a disclaimer on their mailings that says, oh, by the way, these posters are available at no charge from the US Department of Labor or from your State Department of Labor. So beware of those. Now, there's nothing wrong with purchasing them if you want, as long as they're customized for the posters that you need in your state. They do look nice, but you can certainly download them yourself. You can have them laminated if you want to. And as Olivia said, there aren't always new laws that have to be um noted with a poster.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Great points, Mary. So for the federal department of labor, access the website, which we will have in the notes for everyone, and it will guide you which posters are required for your practice to display them. Now, once we satisfy federal, we still have state. So Linda is going to talk to us about state requirements.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Thank you, Olivia. There's so many different requirements at the state level. So I'm going to make a few general comments and speak about Florida and then help our listeners determine what best to do in their state. Typically, most states require you have a poster related to the minimum wage in that state, because there are a number of states where the minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum wage. And I'll use Florida as an example here. Several years ago, there was an amendment to our state constitution raising the hourly minimum wage $1 per hour until 2026 when it reaches $15 an hour. So every year, that poster needs to be updated for every Florida employer. And on top of that, they change the date of the effective date when with that statute change. So it's not yet by January 1st, it's by September 30th of every year. So what we typically do for our clients, if we know that their entire poster is not out to date, is we can download that poster and have them add that new corrected poster to their posters. Assuming that they have a poster, like as Mary mentioned, getting a laminated one. And if that poster is not out to date, there's just one little change, there's no reason why you can't post over that for a year or two until you feel like your all-in-one poster needs to be updated. What I love about the all-in-one posters that Mary mentioned is that it cleans up the break room or maybe the restroom where these posters are placed out into one, you know, nice poster instead of having so many. And that's an important thing because there's a lot of there's not much space in dental practice. And by the time you need to have a bulletin board or other things on the wall, there's just not space for all these additional posters. And to piggyback off what you and Mary have said, Olivia, is that the companies will try to sell you many different posters and they will branch over to safe working days and to HIPAA and all these other areas that don't even apply to dental practice. And there's no HIPAA required poster in a dental practice. So I think I want to focus on that for just a minute. There's no HIPAA required poster. What you are required to post that the Divas have mentioned in other podcasts is your notice of privacy practices for your patients, which is not for the team members. I would like to mention one specific poster for Florida, Olivia, and that is the fact that several years ago we were required to post, all employers were required to post a human trafficking poster. And if you remember the divas did speak about that, I'm forgetting the episode number now, but we had our good friend Deborah Inglehart Nash talk about that whole entire topic. And this poster has to be a certain size, much like the OSHA poster has to be a certain size. It's not 8 by 14, and it has to have certain language on it. So typically, if you print it out, you must take it to a printer and have it resized to be the proper size. And what I'd like to say about that poster is the fact that you think of it being strictly for maybe patients who are coming in that have been trafficked and you have those sad scenarios. But this poster is for employee employers to post for their employees. So bear in mind, you can certainly have both. You can certainly have something in your patient restrooms about trafficking if you like, in the event that somebody comes in and needs that extra assistance. But this is a human trafficking poster that all Florida employers must post for their employees. A couple of resources that come to mind for helping our listeners to determine what might be needed for their particular state is check with your state dental association. You might be able to get good advice from them, of course. Check with your State Department of Labor, check with your workers' compensation carrier. They typically send their poster out annually when your policy has renewed with the effective policy dates. Those are some resources that our listeners can take, Olivia, and use to research what's needed in their state.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Great info, Linda. And that's basically what we do. We just Google Federal Department of Labor. Scroll down because all the paid advertisements are at the top. You want to make sure that you're on the Department of Labor, the.gov website. And the same thing for the state posters. And I'm glad you brought up Florida because there's definitely added posters that your state requires, but I'll compare it to Tennessee. You want to make sure you're on TN.gov and you type in required posters and it lists all the links. And in looking at those links, there's not been any changes in at least five years. So it's a little bit uh concerning when these poster companies say, Well, you have new posters, you have to buy their poster. If you want to buy the poster because it's a space saver, that's one thing. Um, also, where do we put the poster? Linda, you mentioned that, you know, some will put it in the restroom. The posters have to be conspicuous. If it's conspicuous in the restroom, that's understandable. But unfortunately, I've seen in some dental practices there's like a uh a hook on the bathroom door and they have sweaters and jackets on the hook, and then the poster is covered up. So that would not be conspicuous. So a good place would be a conspicuous place, meaning maybe the break room, as you mentioned, Linda, or wherever the employees can see it. But even though they're ugly, they have to be conspicuous. But what about other signage and maybe even dental licenses, Leslie? Can you talk to us about that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Well, it's important to take care of uh following all your own dental board requirements for posters. You know, many dental boards require that the licenses of each licensed individual be posted. California has a requirement that you have not only the name and license type of each person on a poster by itself. So a person's first name and last name and their license type is supposed to be displayed in every dental practice in a conspicuous location. So that means uh in the either in the reception area or in the business area where people will see that coming and going. Most dentists will display a copy of their dental license, but dental team members oftentimes don't have their license on display on a plaque in the uh dental practice. So uh in some cases where dental board requires it, at least in California, uh the name and the license type would be enough to be able to qualify for that. Having that information on a sign somewhere uh in your practice where people can see it. There's also some other requirements that I want to mention where if your practice if your state requires it, there may be other signage. In California, there is a settlement which is called the Prop 65 settlement that warns people that there are substances used in the dental practice that are known to the state of California to be carcinogenic or cause birth defects or death. So there has to be the Prop 65 warning in every dental practice. There's also something that is called the, and let me just re-refer back to Prop 65. Interestingly enough, it's only required in practices that have 10 or more employees. It's funny to me because I always kind of make a joke out of it. If you have nine or less employees, the chemicals we use here are not hazardous, but if you have 10 or more, they are. And really that's not the case. It's just, you know, it's a jokingly way to remind people that uh, you know, if you have 10 employees, that's the dividing line. That's where we go for making sure that that poster is in place. There's also a requirement in California to have the minimum standards for infection control uh available posted in a practice where the dental employees can see it, similar to the employment posters. Patients don't need to see it, but employees do, as well as what's called the duty table, which is the allowable duties for hygienists or licensed or unlicensed dental assistants, so that they know not only what duties they're allowed to perform, but what uh level of supervision. Is it direct supervision? Does the dentist have to be physically present? Or can it be done under indirect supervision where the dentist does not have to be physically present? There's other signs such as radiation safety signs that need to be posted. And again, you check with your state um uh agencies to make sure that you're complying with that requirement. And then let's see, I believe there's one more that I forgot to mention. Oh, yes, we have something called notice to consumers, notice to consumers in California, and it's a sign that has to be posted in 48 point font that tells the patient that dentists are licensed and regulated by the dental board of California, and that dental hygienists are licensed and regulated by the dental hygiene board of California. So again, you can see there's a lot of different posters besides the employment posters that a dental office has to take into consideration. And in addition to the resources that we've provided, it's a very good idea to check with your own state dental board and maybe your own state dental association to make sure that you've got all the required posters necessary to keep you compliant.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Thanks for sharing all that information about California. So our California listeners can be sure to be in compliance. Uh, they do have a lot of added requirements. So we're so glad to have our California Diva. And I know on a level working in my own office, I've worked with numerous dentists as an attorney that had problems with the board because of dental assistants or dental hygienists not their license not being current. Well, if they had complied with posting, they may have noticed that the license had lapsed. So this is something that we add to our checklist when we're auditing a practice to make sure that they are displayed. Uh, some people they don't want their name visible, their full name. Well, guess what? If you have a dental license, it's on the internet, so it's already public. Uh, so we'd have to get over that issue or hurdle. But Mary, I'd love to ask of you of any other helpful helpful signage that you might suggest with your clients and our listeners might benefit from.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Absolutely. One of the things we didn't mention, um, and it does fall under um required um posters, is the OSHA Safe Workplace poster. So either if you are a federal OSHA state, then you must use the federal form. We'll post the link on um on the show notes and and on our website. Or if you are a state OSHA plan state, they may have a poster specific to that state that you need to post. And I come from Michigan and my OSHA in in Michigan um has a specific poster, but they also have some additional posters that are required that have to do with the location of safety data sheets and whenever there is a new safety data sheet for a new product, for example. So those are types of things that need to be posted. The other thing related to OSHA is that there aren't a lot of dental practices that fall under the reporting requirements for the OSHA Form 300. But if you've been contacted by your state or by federal OSHA for whatever reason, that you must follow those reporting requirements, then now is the time for you to be posting your OSHA summary log, the OSHA Form 300A. And again, it has to be a in a conspicuous place and it details any of the injuries, workplace injuries that took place, not identifying the person, but the type of injury that has happened in the workplace. And then we look at things like hosting protocols. What is the protocol for someone who gets a needle stick or an exposure incident? What do we do? Um, what are the steps to that? And I've seen some really great ones in some practices that they've created their own looking at what these important protocols are. If this happens, go here. Um, what what is our protocol? Um, if there's a medical emergency in the in the practice, who do we call first? Who do we notify, and who's responsible? So any of those types of situations that require following specific steps are good ones for um posting and and signage. Also remember that OSHA has specific um rules for making sure that people understand where the exits are. And so if you have um doors that might be mistaken for an exit, you are required by OSHA on a federal and state level to put a sign on that door that says not an exit, or that identifies where that door leads to, so someone won't be confused in the case of a fire or you know, some kind of a panic trying to get out of your building. So those are just some examples of things that we need to be paying attention to.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

That's good information, Mary. And I like how you pointed out about the exposure incident. I've seen that also in practices where they have some kind of workflow uh procedures listed, what you do next. Uh, I know some years ago we came up with a little poster about changing gloves because we identified that that had been a problem where the clinical auxiliaries would have the same gloves they worked on a patient. Now they were cleaning the treatment room and disinfecting with those same gloves on. So we came up with a little makeshift poster to remind people about changing gloves. So whatever that case may be, it might be handy. Not that we want posters all over our entire office, but it is helpful to have some of these reminders, particularly those that are required on a federal and state level. I know in Tennessee we have to post the pay period. So employees are not having to ask for their paycheck. It should be posted when they are paid. So hopefully this helps our listeners. Mary, did you want to add a point to that?

SPEAKER_02 20:27

I did, and and I understand it and I have the same concern. We don't want posters everywhere. But what I find is the inside of cabinet doors are great places to put these reminder posters. Um, whether it's in the treatment room, what's the protocol for uh an exposure incident, or whether we have a workflow for sterilization or whatever it is inside the cabinet doors because we know we're in and out of those all the time, and then we're not cluttering everything up.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

That's a great suggestion, Mary. So hopefully we're not panicking about required posters anymore after this episode, and that it assists you in understanding what posters are required and those that are not. And if you choose to order space-saving posters, that's entirely up to our listeners. So, in closing, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. Please submit your questions to support at the compliancedevos.com. The resources that we mentioned during this episode to include the federal and state department of labor links will be available for you. Thanks for tuning in.