FMLA and Short-term Disability (STD)

Most women take some time off after surgery for recovery.  In America, some employees are covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which lets you take 12-weeks of unpaid, job-protected time off for medical reasons.  I also had short-term disability (STD) insurance offered by my company so I used that in conjunction with FMLA.  I didn't understand my benefits that well in the beginning though so I had to spend a lot of time researching and talking to the benefit coordinators to figure things out prior to surgery.  Having to deal with administrative work such as filing claims, paying bills, etc. on top of working and going to numerous medical appointments added to the stress.

There is intermittent and continous FMLA. Intermittent is used if you only need periodic time off of short duration.  Continuous FMLA is used for a chunk of time off with no break in between.  Policies vary, but my STD works only with continuous time off.  There is a 7 day elimination period where you do not get benefits, and after that it pays out 60% of my salary.  So if I took 2 weeks off, I would not get paid the first 7 days from STD but would the second week.  When taking FMLA and not getting paid STD, such as during the elimination period, I am forced to use my paid time off (PTO) by my company if I have any.  Otherwise I would be on unpaid FMLA.  In some states you are protected from having to use your PTO during the elimination period but not mine.  The company will tell you that the policy is in place so you can get paid.  Don't be fooled.  This is just a way for the company to extract more working time out of you once you are back from FMLA.  They don't want you taking vacations after you've just been out on medical leave.  

My company uses Prudential to manage their short and long-term disability benefits.  While it was a little frustrating in the beginning to figure things out, overall, working with them has been a positive experience.  The agents are relatively easy to reach by phone (minimal phone tree input), are polite, and my claims often got approved a lot quicker than the 10 business days they say it can take.