STD Questions

System

We have someone that just went out on STD for Maternity leave.
Her Supervisor says she is VERY good friends with the doctor and feels he inflated the time out approved (12weeks) instead of 6-8wks. He is very upset. I told him we would monitor it and call her around 6weeks from now. Any other suggestions on how to make sure she is not 'snowing us? :~~

Don D

You're chasing an 8-legged rabbit, and you can never catch one of those. We get 'snowed' every day. What we have to do is consider the probability of ever proving such snow jobs as this one might be and consider the amount of time and heartburn you'll spend running it in circles. It's precisely the same as knowing certain people in the plant are going to jab you with comp claim after comp claim, another 8-legged rabbit but sometimes a 4-legged alligator.

Move on and ignore the comment; but, find a creative way to tell the supervisor to make better use of his time. He's probably friends with his own doctor.

POPEYE

Don D - Please set me up a hunting trip for those MS 8 legged rabbits!! We don't have those here in TN and I'm always looking for a good hunting adventure.
One of my hounds did tree a 5 legged coon once.

Leslie

There's a doctor in a near by town who everyone knows will write you a "time off work" excuse for just about anything. I had sinusitis and bronchitis, my doctor hands me three scripts and boots me out the door back to work. My assistant gets the same thing and this doctor took him off for a week! There just ain't nothing you can do about it.

LindaS

Keep in mind that pregnancy cannot be treated any different than any other illness or injury so I don't think there is really anything you can do other than to require her to be re-certified after 30 days. The physician, if your supervisor is correct, will probably allow the employee continued time off and at that point you can choose to have the ee examined by a different physician which will probably lead to a 3rd exam, all paid by you.

In any event she is still allowed the 12 weeks under FMLA so the only difference would be the pay.

My advice would be to allow her the 12 weeks, which then "eats up" all her FMLA for the year and any additional time would need to fall under your vacation and/or attendancy policy.

System

She does not qualify for FMLA so she only has STD. That is why I think the Doctor wrote it for 12wks

LindaS

Do you have an insurance company that administers the plan or do you do it in house? If you have an insurance company that does it they may question the need for 12 weeks off based on her condition and if so, they may deny payment of the claim for that period of time.

I once had a situation with an employee where the physician pulled a pregnant employee off work and dictated the need for bedrest. The insurance company questioned this and, after receiving the medical paperwork, decided to deny the claim.

This may be an option for you.

njjel

I wouldn't worry about it. Too many other things to take care of than to fight with a doctor about 6 weeks. Of course if higher ups want you to push it you can have her go to your own doctor (at your company's expense) for an evaluation. But i wouldn't think that would make for very good employee/employer morale on a company-wide basis. As an aside, I am in NJ and almost all it not every one of the maternity FMLA certs I get back are written for 12 weeks.