3 days required to qualify

marc

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-15-03 AT 10:27AM (CST)[/font][p]The full article is in another HR website, but this raises all sorts of questions about various health conditions that I always thought qualified as a serious health condition without regard to the three day rule. Now, for instance, is a migraine headache condition that has not required the 3 consecutive full days of incapacity a FML event? I am confused. Here is the link to the article: [url]http://www.shrm.org/hrnews_published/articles/CMS_005739.asp#P-8_0[/url]

Here is the link and edit as requested: Apologies for breach of posting ettiquette and any issues associated with copyright.

Don D

I don't understand the point of the post. People diagnosed and certified medically with migraines are, as stated in the Act, qualified for intermittent FMLA. Migraines are specifically mentioned in the Act.

marc

Migraines may be covered, I just used them as an example. The judge has said without 3 full consecutive days of incapacity, there is no serious health condition. I used to believe that the serious health condition facet of the FMLA was a stand alone qualifier. This article leads me to believe otherwise. To stick with the example, if an ee suffers from migraines, they do not qualify for FML unless they have had the 3 days of incapacity. That would be true for any other serious health condition. It seems to be overlooked in nearly all of the threads on this topic. Perhaps I have been misunderstanding all of this time.

Don D

It seems to be overlooked in nearly all of
>the threads on this topic. Perhaps I have been misunderstanding all
>of this time.

I'm not sure, Marc, about whether or not you 'have been misunderstanding all of this time', but, you are now.

Brad Forrister

Whoa - Marc, please summarize or link to copyrighted content on the other site, rather than copying and pasting. Can you edit your post accordingly?

Brad Forrister
Director of Publishing
M. Lee Smith Publishers

Brad Forrister

Okay, and now a substantive comment:

I think this case is just about the three-day rule, not the "chronic serious health condition" rule. The employee had a slip-and-fall injury but wasn't out three consecutive days as a result.

That's quite different from the rule that governs migraines, diabetes, asthma, and so forth - the "chronic" rule.

Remember that "serious health condition" can be shown several ways:

<*> inpatient care;

<*> incapacity of more than three consecutive calendar days that also involves two or more visits to a health care provider or assistant, or one visit that results in continuing treatment under the provider's supervision;

<*> any period of incapacity due to pregnancy or prenatal care;

<*> any period of incapacity due to a "chronic serious health condition," defined as a condition requiring periodic visits to a provider, which continues over an extended period of time and which may cause "episodic rather than a continuing period of incapacity"...

One portion of the rules states that unless complications arise, the common cold, flu, earaches, upset stomach, minor ulcers, headache other than migraine, and routine dental problems do not qualify for FMLA leave. But notice the "other than migraine" language.


Brad Forrister
Director of Publishing
M. Lee Smith Publishers

marc

It looks like my confusion arises from the differences between a 3 day incapacitation and the chronic serious health condition. I read the article as linking the two so that a chronic serious health condition under the FMLA could not happen unless the three consecutive days of incapacity preceded. Which, as I stated, seemed to run counter to my earlier understanding.

Thanks for the clarification Brad.

SMace

Don't forget it's not 3 days, it's MORE than 3 days.

njjel

So if an ee is absent two days with a migraine and see a physician, those 2 days are treated as FMLA leave provided ee is qualified for the leave?

System

>Don't forget it's not 3 days, it's MORE than 3 days.


It's 3 Consecutive days, which can be Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, or any other days when the ee is not scheduled to work. It's a pain tracking the time to see who "may be eligible" under the 3 day rule.

I send the employee a copy of his/her rights under FMLA and proceed from there.