FMLA

[martinez0413 0]

I wanted to know for those who have taken medical leave , how long is the process ? Does it take long to get approved ?

[orionburn 1,023]

I assume you are asking about the approval time for the surgery, not for FML, yes?

Approval times are going to vary depending on your insurance company and their requirements. My insurance required a 6 month program. Once the program was completed it took about 4 weeks to actually get approved. My paperwork was sent in right before Thanksgiving so between the holidays and end of year rush a supposed to be 1-2 week process took a month.

If you have a fairly common insurance company try asking your bariatric office. They should be familiar enough with the main companies to give you a decent feel for approval times.

[blizair09 3,250]

In my company, you have to take 5 sick days before STD can kick in. I applied for both FMLA and STD about a month before my surgery date (which is right around the time it got scheduled). I had to call the STD insurance company the day before my leave started (which was surgery day). They approved me for 4 weeks during that 5 day sick leave period that we are required to take. They then extended it to a total of 6 weeks about 2 weeks into it. That is this company's process. I imagine others are similar, but they might not be exactly the same.

[mw2543 23]

They told about 1-2 weeks. I have a sit all day job so it won’t be long. If you job requires lifting you are going have issues. But if you got a desk job like me maybe a week. I haven’t hard surgery yet. That is only based on what I have been told.

[BusyMom945 63]

On ‎9‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 7:57 PM, mw2543 said:

They told about 1-2 weeks. I have a sit all day job so it won’t be long. If you job requires lifting you are going have issues. But if you got a desk job like me maybe a week. I haven’t hard surgery yet. That is only based on what I have been told.

I have a desk job as well, but I'm planning to take two weeks (my doctor said 2 to 3 weeks). My sister just had her surgery in August and I was asking her about taking off because itially I was only going to take a week off like you are. But she really recommended taking an additional week off. She was telling me that you will be really drained and probably be very tired. And if you are still on pain meds it's not recommended to drive. So I started completing my FMLA paperwork as well. I'm going to take a week and the other week will be disability. But I just wanted to give you a little heads up since my sister has been through this so recently, she has been a great resource for me. Best of luck to you!