Those who first go out on disability often “intermix” everything that’s happening together with little understanding of any one thing. Understandably, STD can be confusing because there ARE so many things going on at once.
First, every employer has a different way of recording, reporting, and allocating leave. Some employer benefit plans require employees to “use up” PTO, vacation and sick leave prior to collecting self-insured or fully insured STD. However, for nearly all employers, the Family Medical Leave Act comes into play and runs consecutively with STD.
FMLA is a federal law requiring employers to “hold” employee jobs, and continue to pay benefits for a period of 12 weeks.Employers with 50+ employees within 75 miles of each other must offer FMLA to employees who have worked 12 months with 1,250 hours of employment in that period of time. FMLA is UNPAID leave that runs consecutively with STD for a period of 12 weeks.
At the end of the 12 week period, employers will generally ask if the employee will be returning to work. If not, employers can terminate the employee with the blessing of the federal government. Some employers apply more liberal time periods, at least waiting to see if the employee is approved for LTD. A scattering of employers also keep paying for health insurance for longer than 12 weeks.”
However, the majority of employers “terminate” employees at the end of 12 weeks so that positions can be replaced sooner rather than later. Those who seek private disability are often disheartened when employers finally terminate employment.
But, please keep in mind there is a big difference between “terminate” and “fired.” Employees generally see the word “terminate” in the letter, but the brain translates “fired.” This is nothing to be ashamed of since the employer’s termination is to “terminate” as a statutory employee with no negative connotations.
Therefore, at the same time applications are made for STD, FMLA paperwork is also required, which is extensive, by the way. Physicians are asked to sign at least two sets of paperwork – one for STD and one for FMLA.
In order to make matters a bit more confusing, approval of FMLA requires an END DATE on the forms. Private disability does not. Therefore, physicians need to be steered away from short deadlines on FMLA paperwork because the end dates have to constantly be moved forward. While the standard response to end dates for STD is, “To be Determined, FMLA paperwork must have a specific date to be approved.
At this point it seems obvious that there could be three things going on at once: Employer leave, FMLA, and application for STD. One of the first questions I am always asked is, “When my employer terminates me, will I lose my STD/LTD?” The answer is, “No”. Once you have applied under a disability Plan for benefits, what happens at the employer level does NOT affect disability benefits.
Finally, severance pay from the employer is the final process that can be involved with initial applications. Certain positions and employers will offer severance pay, which may or may not be an offset from disability benefits. It is no wonder that more than few claimants have difficulty keeping it all straight.
The important thing to remember is to keep the above explained “leaves” separate and do not intermingle them together. Employer leave, FMLA and STD are three separate and distinct aspects of going out on disability and do NOT affect each other. Admittedly, STD can be a very confusing process if you combine the different aspects of “leave” into one big bundle called STD.
If you need assistance with your newly applied STD claim, please feel free to contact me.
