STD Forms - who gets to send them controversey

njjel

A question for you all. Who sends in the short term state disability forms in to the state, HR or the employee? We have a controversey here where the employee wants the right to send the form after HR has filled in the salary and other pertinent info. In the past it has always been that the employee filled in their part and the doctor filled in thier part and then it came to us to fill in and sign off on the employer's part and mail it to the state. How is this handled at your office?

Whatever

I prefer to send in the STD forms. However, if the employee wants to do it, I let them. After all, it contains medical information that technically I'm not entitled to.

Crout

The EE does NOT have a "right" to mail in the form. That is an HR function, and needs to be kept in HR. If I were in your shoes I would not establish a precedent for this kind of nonsense.

HRQ

I agree with Crout. Consider the risk:

You complete your part including income info. Send the form to the employee, they do whatever they want with it, including potentially "fudging" income info, then they send it to the carrier.

Even though I keep a copy of what I fill out, I'd not likely realize if the employee increased their earnings info after I was done with the form.

Don D

Why would it go to 'the state' in the first place? HR here sends (faxes) the paperwork to the STD carrier, which is not the state. But, the question, I suppose, is the same. HR is required to send it in in all cases with which I'm familiar. I would not suggest giving up that level of control over the form since the company pays the premium and has a right to interract with the carrier to ensure proper admin of the STD program. On this note, though, I have often thought "We cannot even ask for this type of information on the FMLA forms and here we are having it in our very hands concurrent with the FMLA paperwork." On one hand, we are precluded by law from asking for a diagnosis and on the other (STD) we have that very information and are faxing it and filing it in the medical file. But the risk of trickery on the form outweighs HR having the information in my opinion.

sonny

We switched carriers last year and "I" just filed our first LTD claim(don't have STD). I was surprised to see the whole packet of forms were addressed to the employee. .ie employee checklist: be sure to get a copy of your job description from your employer etc. This was a first for me, opposite of what I had dealt with prior. Being the control freak I am and for the ee's sake wanting to get it all there, I worked closely with ee and we mailed it out together, FROM HR. I have had a couple cases where the ee was not physically and/or mentally capable of doing all the paper work or evne getting it in the mail for that matter. I wondered if the change had something to do with HIPPA or increased emphasis on confidentiality of medical information? Even before this carrier, I have always told ee if they want medical portion sealed or mailed separately that was fine. No one has taken me up on it..Think they know we are here to help and not going to blab their prognosis.

njjel

DonD - In the state of NJ, short term disability may be purchased through the state plan OR a private plan. Ours is purchased through the state and therefore the short term disability form goes to the state for processing. I too am wondering what with the new HIPPA regs if we have the right to continue to request the form be filled out first by the employee?? Any of you form attorneys care to comment on this one?

System

Njjel,

Here in Maryland we don't have a state system that I'm aware of. We deal with the insurer. I fill out the employer's portion, including the compensation section, and keep a copy. The only information that could be fudged would be the medical and that would require tampering by the employee or falsification by the physician.

As far as personal medical information, I'm considered the "privacy officer" anyway since I have the employee medical files. That's spelled out in our privacy statement.

My control is that I have copies of any employee-related documents. I don't really care "who goes first" in the case of STDI. Your state may be different, however.

"Sam"

Crout

I'm not an attorney, but I would say that by voluntarily filling out the form and signing the document the EE is granting permission for the information to be used for the specified reason. After all, the EE is not being compelled to file for STD, correct? And what does this have to do with who mails in the form anyway?

njjel

The question of who mails the form is because if the employee fills out their section first and the employer fills out their section after that and mails the form, then the employer gets to see all of the medical information. If the employee fills out their section after the employer fills out their section and mails the form, then the employer does not see it. My concern is as stated here on a post above that the income figures could be altered by the employee if the employer fills out their section and then turns it over to the employee. Also, we would not have a completed copy of the form and I was wondering how others on the forum handle this.

juju

We complete the employer portion and send the employee portion and doctor's cert to the employee. We have them return it to us and we submit everything together. Our corporate office requires that. Like the other posters said, this way we have a copy of all forms sent and the employee has no opportunity to alter the employer portion. I know we then get to see the medical information, but I think that is the lesser of the two evils. At least this way we can be sure the form was submitted correctly and completely.