Swank v. CareSource Management Group Corp.

657 F. App'x 458
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 17, 2016
Docket15-4193
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 657 F. App'x 458 (Swank v. CareSource Management Group Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Swank v. CareSource Management Group Corp., 657 F. App'x 458 (6th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

ROGERS, Circuit Judge.

Katherina Swank appeals the district court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of her former employer, CareSource Management Group, Co., on her Americans with Disabilities Act and state-law discrihiination claims. Swank is a registered nurse and has rheumatoid arthritis. In 2011, CareSource eliminated her existing position and. offered her a new position as a RN Case Manager-High Risk (“CMHR”). The new CMHR position involved driving to conduct face-to-face visits with CareSource clients. Believing that Swank was unable to conduct these face-to-face visits due to her rheumatoid arthritis, CareSource terminated Swank.

On appeal, Swank argues that the district court erred by holding that she had failed to establish a genuine issue of fact about whether she could perform the CMHR position without accommodation. This argument is unavailing because the undisputed facts establish that Swank needed accommodation to perform the CMHR position.

Swank also argues that the district court erred in holding that there were no genuine issues of fact about whether (1) driving was an essential function of the CMHR position; (2) there were alternative positions to which Swank should have been reassigned; and (3) CareSource engaged in a good-faith interactive process with her. The undisputed facts establish that driving was an essential function of the CMHR position and that CareSource had no open alternative positions to which Swank could have been reassigned. Further, because Swank did not propose a reasonable accommodation to address her stated driving limitations, her interactive-process claim fails as a matter of law. These remaining *460 arguments therefore do not provide a basis, for relief.

I.

CareSource is an organization that provides managed healthcare services to Medicaid recipients who are enrolled with Car-eSource (ie., CareSource members). Swank is a registered nurse (“RN”) who lives in Kent, Ohio. In 2007, CareSource hired Swank to work as a case manager in its Warrensville Heights office. As a case manager, Swank worked with CareSource members and healthcare providers to conduct healthcare assessments of the members and to assist the members with a variety of health issues. At this time, Swank conducted her case manager duties entirely by telephone.

At some time between 2008 and 2009, Swank was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Due to her arthritis, Swank had intermittent difficulty walking, lifting heavy items, and driving. She also became more susceptible to illness due to a weakened immune system. In 2008, Swank applied to work from home as a case management teleworker because she was having difficulty driving. In October 2009, CareSource began permitting Swank to work from home.

In 2011, CareSource began exploring a new approach to its delivery of managed care services to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (“ODJFS”). Car-eSource had entered into an agreement with ODJFS to provide managed healthcare services to Medicaid recipients in Ohio. ODJFS mandated that CareSource change its healthcare plans so that Care-Source could begin following a high-touch, community-based model. ODJFS also mandated that CareSource employees meet face-to-face with certain high risk members on at least a quarterly basis.

As a result of ODJFS’s mandate, Car-eSource eliminated all case manager positions as they previously existed, and created a new position called RN Case Manager—High Risk. The CMHR was an RN who was the primary point of contact for CareSource members and was ultimately responsible for setting up the assessment of each member’s care-treatment plan. CMHRs were supervised by team leaders and were assigned to teams that included social workers, patient navigators, and licensed practical nurses (“LPNs”). •

The CMHR was responsible for working with her team to set up face-to-face visits with members. A CMHR could delegate some of these face-to-face visits to social workers, patient navigators, and other CareSource employees on her team. However, when the visit involved a “duty that was within the scope of an RN license,” the CMHR was required to conduct the face-to-face visit herself. The CMHR used' her professional, clinical judgment to determine if a member needed to be visited by an RN.

In November 2011, CareSource employees Sheila Putman and Christi Goldshot told Swank that CareSource was going to offer her a CMHR position. Swank told Putman and Goldshot that she had concerns about traveling to conduct face-to-face visits with members due to her driving and autoimmune issues. Swank testified that Putman and Goldshot suggested that Swank request leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act for the days that Swank could not drive to conduct a face-to-face visit with a member, and CareSource could assign someone else to conduct the visit. Swank also testified that Putman and Goldshot said that they would provide her with a protective mask to address her autoimmune-system issues.

*461 On November 14, 2011, Swank sent a letter to Pamela Tropiano, CareSource’s Senior Vice President of Health Services, stating that the CMHR position “would be hazardous considering [her] current health condition,” Swank explained that since her “immune system [was] compromised ... [s]ending [her] ... into an environment where [she would be] in contact with highest risk patients would be detrimental to [her] health.”

In December 2011, Goldshot and Put-man met with Swank and showed her an offer letter for the CMHR position. Swank again expressed concerns about the driving portion of the position and “wanted to see if [CareSouree] would assign [her] patients closer to [her] area.” Swank testified that she told Goldshot and Putman that she “would be able to perform all the driving as long as [she] didn’t have to drive as long a distance.” In response to Swank’s concerns about driving, Goldshot and Put-man suggested that Swank make a formal request for accommodation. They also told Swank that CareSouree would waive the driving requirements of the CMHR position while CareSouree determined whether it could provide a reasonable accommodation for her.

The next day, Swank requested an application for an accommodation from Jane Casson, a Senior Benefits Analyst for CareSouree. This application consisted of a copy of the CMHR job description and two questionnaires: one to be completed by Swank and one to be completed by her treating physician. In her questionnaire, Swank checked “yes” in response to CareSource’s question about whether she believed that she “need[ed] a reasonable accommodation in order to be able to perform the essential functions of [her] position.” She also stated that she was “[u]nable to tolerate being exposed to changes in weather conditions” and “[u]n-able to sit / stand for long periods of time.” In response to CareSource’s request to “describe the reasonable accommodation” that she was seeking, Swank stated that she “[o]riginally requested [an] open position on [November 3, 2011] that would enable [her] to stay gainfully employed. Meeting was with [management team and [she] made them aware of [her] concerns and hesitation to accept” the CMHR position.

In her questionnaire, Swank’s physician, Nikita Hegde, stated that Swank would have “difficulty” performing some of the tasks and duties listed in the CMHR job description.

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657 F. App'x 458, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swank-v-caresource-management-group-corp-ca6-2016.