Short Term Disability vs FMLA

[olderbudwizer]

How is it determined if an anticipated absence for treatment can be covered under Short Term Disability or if you have to use FMLA?

I do not purchase my employers medical insurance - I have my own thru another retirement package. Company provides FMLA as well as STD, the STD covers up to 90 days at 100% salary (very generous) but has a 2-week exclusion period which can be covered by granted sick days, personal days, etc.

I'd rather not use FMLA as that is unpaid, will be getting 6-9 weeks radiation treatment starting in mid-January. I may be abe to work - on the other hand I may choose a treatment facility that is not local.

Thanks,

[jk]

You are comparing apples to rocks.

FMLA is a law that requires an eligible employee be allowed up to 12 weeks of leave without repercussions due to that leave. STD is merely an insurance policy that pays you when you are eligible under it's requirements. They can run concurrently.

If you are eligible for FMLA leave, your leave must be treated as such but it has nothing to do with getting paid or not.

[olderbudwizer]

I'm eligible for both, as I read the terms. Do I get to choose? If they run concurrently, how does that work? I didn't think you could be on both at the same time?

[cbg]

No, you do not get to choose. It is not either/or. They are not the same thing. FMLA is leave. STD is income replacement. You most certainly can be on both at the same time.

If an employee, the employer, and the medical condition all qualify for FMLA and the employer knows it, the employer MUST, under the law, apply FMLA whether you request it or not. In fact, if the employer, the employee and the medical condition all qualify under FMLA, then with limited exceptions the employer must apply FMLA regardless of whether you want it or not. The only exceptions would be if the employer provided you with the paperwork for FMLA, and after 15 days (or more if the employer so specifies, but not less), you had not returned it, completed by the doctor. In that case, the employer could legally refuse to apply FMLA protections. Of course, in that case, the company attendance policy would apply and you could be legally fired when you had missed as much time as the company policy allowed.

STD is how you get paid while you are on medical leave. (FMLA is by definition unpaid.) If you choose not to apply for STD, tnere is no legal violation by either the employer or the employee; however, you simply will not have any income for the time you are out.

It is quite possible for FMLA and STD benefits to run at the same time. If you do not have enough vacation or sick days to cover the entire leave, the ONLY way to get paid is to apply for STD at the same time you are on FMLA.

[olderbudwizer]

Thank You. That's much clearer. Appreciate your feedback.

[Mad Bomber]

Big companys like to use the FMLA to get rid of you at the end if your not able to go back at the end of 4 months. Now I don't have any job to go back to.

[cbg]

The law specifically allows an employer to terminate if you are unable to return at the end of 12 weeks.