I had a quick question for all of you who have been but on bed rest. I have been placed on best rest at 25 weeks under the term disability. My doctor explained to me that I can still get paid from my employer but they do not seem to know anything. Also what is the difference between FMLA and Disability? Thank you
QUOTE(jwadowsky @ Jan 29 2009, 09:57 AM) [snapback]1167506[/snapback] I had a quick question for all of you who have been but on bed rest. I have been placed on best rest at 25 weeks under the term disability. My doctor explained to me that I can still get paid from my employer but they do not seem to know anything. Also what is the difference between FMLA and Disability? Thank you First of all, I am so sorry you are on bed rest at 25 weeks. Disability can vary greatly by company so your human resources department should have the documentation specific to your company. Here is how it works at mine. If you are put on bed rest under the supervision of your doctor and cannot perform your job duties you are entiled to to on Short Term Disability (STD). There is a five week elimination period where we have to use either sick, personal or vacation time if you still want to get paid during that time. After the elimination period, STD kicks in and lasts until the babies are born. I believe our STD payout is 50% of pay but again, I think that varies by company. I am still working from home so I am not on STD (yet). At our company, FMLA and STD run concurrently so lets say I was on bedrest for 12 weeeks and then I have the babies, I wouldn't be protected under FMLA anymore due to the 12 weeks limit; however, I would still get our maternity leave pay, which is 6 weeks for a vaginal birth and 8 weeks for a c-section. The hitch is that if I would go back, I would not be guaranteed my position or one of equivalence. Fortunately, I am 31 weeks along so even if I make it to 38 weeks and I went on STD today, I would still have five weeks of FMLA left. Hope this helps. It is VERY confusing so make sure someone at your company explains in great detail what your benefits are. I know I needed to call several times with different scenarios to figure it all out where I work.
QUOTE(jwadowsky @ Jan 29 2009, 09:57 AM) [snapback]1167506[/snapback] I had a quick question for all of you who have been but on bed rest. I have been placed on best rest at 25 weeks under the term disability. My doctor explained to me that I can still get paid from my employer but they do not seem to know anything. Also what is the difference between FMLA and Disability? Thank you Sorry to hear you were put on bedrest! Definitely talk to someone knowledgeable in your HR department. FMLA is the protection of your current position or one equivelent to it. It is good for 12 weeks if you work in a company that employs 50 or more people in a 75 mile radius, and you have worked over 1250 hours in the past 12 mos. (At least this is my company's guidelines pursuant to FMLA). Disability is the reason you are taking your FMLA. FMLA does not guarantee any sort of payment while you are on leave, just that you can get your job when you come back. Now you can also probably file for STD if this is something offered to you through your company. This is usually a % of your current pay. Every company has a different contract so you will have to find out what yours offers. If by chance your are still able to work reduced hours from bed then there is a chance you can postpone using your FMLA time but still file for STD. I had reduced hours starting at 12 weeks (when I filed for STD, they paid me for the hours I couldn't work since I was normally full time, but had been told to only work 24 hours a wk), but I did not start my FMLA time until I went on bedrest at 30 weeks and had to completely stop working. It is all a bit confusing, but I hope this helps. Good luck!
FMLA is the gov protection to keep your job while out but it runs out at 12 weeks. STD is how you get paid while out.... I started my bed rest and STD at 14 weeks so I will run out of my FMLA way before the twins even get here... I could lose my job but I work in public health and we have a prenatal department so I would think that they would not fire one of there employee's WHILE on maternity leave. ( the PR would be SO bad for the office) Our companies STD kicks in after 14 days. So I had to use sick time and vacation time for the first 2 weeks. hope this helps, Jodi
In NJ, short term disability is mandatory for all employees. It starts on the 8th day you are out of the office. It pays 66 2.3 % of your salary. Every work is different. My work covers 10 weeks of my pay ... so they make of the difference for 10 weeks so that I get my full pay, whatever STD does not cover. There is state and federal FMLA, and they don't always run together. When I had my twins, my FMLA didn't start until I was OFF disability ... I'm pretty sure that federal FMLA has nothing to do with disability ... but it could have been my state one. All I know is that I was off 4 weeks before the babies were born and 8 weeks after ... and that was all STD. Then once disability ended, I took 3 months of FMLA unpaid. So they didn't run consequetively. Good luck! I just looked it up, and I think it was my state FMLA that didn't run consequetively. Check to see if your state has some sort of Family leave benefits!
QUOTE(caba @ Feb 1 2009, 01:56 PM) [snapback]1171604[/snapback] In NJ, short term disability is mandatory for all employees. It starts on the 8th day you are out of the office. It pays 66 2.3 % of your salary. Every work is different. My work covers 10 weeks of my pay ... so they make of the difference for 10 weeks so that I get my full pay, whatever STD does not cover. There is state and federal FMLA, and they don't always run together. When I had my twins, my FMLA didn't start until I was OFF disability ... I'm pretty sure that federal FMLA has nothing to do with disability ... but it could have been my state one. All I know is that I was off 4 weeks before the babies were born and 8 weeks after ... and that was all STD. Then once disability ended, I took 3 months of FMLA unpaid. So they didn't run consequetively. Good luck! I just looked it up, and I think it was my state FMLA that didn't run consequetively. Check to see if your state has some sort of Family leave benefits! You are SO LUCKY... In NH there is nothing mandatory... around here you only get STD if you pay for it and that's IF your company offers it. Many small offices don't even have it. We also don't get paid for maternity leave. We can take it but it's unpaid unless we have STD or vacation to use.
I work for the federal government and we don't even have STD. Actually, we don't have maternity leave either. So, if I had been on bed rest, I would have used my sick and vacation time to get paid. That's what I ended up doing after my twins were born. I used up all my sick and vacation time and then took leave without pay. I was lucky that my employer kept my job; since I stayed out more than 12 weeks I technically could have been let go. Every employee is covered under federal FMLA (if they have worked at the same company for 1250 hours in the last 12 months, and are employed by a company with more than 50 employees in a 75 mile radius). FMLA only protects your job, it doesn't help you get paid while you're out. Like everyone else has said... check with your HR department to see if you have short term disability or maternity leave, or anything that could help you get paid while on bedrest or after your twins are born.
Does anyone know if there is any sort of aid available if you are put on bedrest and your employer does not offer STD?
My company offered short term disability for up to 26 weeks of absence and then Long Term Disability for anything over that. LTD is the one that was optional and paid a portion of your salary, if you opted to pay for the insurance. When I had the twins, I went out of work at 28 weeks and was covered under my short term disability for that time. My company offered 6 weeks paid maternity for a vaginal delivery and 8 weeks for a c/s. The time out of work on STD ran concurrently with FMLA. Lucky for me, I live in MA which has a policy of guaranteeing a mother 8 weeks leave per baby once the baby was born. So for the twins, I was able to take 16 weeks off after their birth despite the fact that my FMLA time was up earlier than that. Check with your company's HR department and check into your state's laws on maternity leave as well.
