Hello!

Just starting my journey in the new year and wanted to start getting everything together. Did anyone use short term disability for their surgery rather than just take vacation? I have limited vacation days next year so I am trying to weigh my options. I know FMLA is an option but that has no pay, so I was wondering if anyone chose short term disability and what the process was?

Thank you!

I didn't really have a choice. Per my companies policy, if I'm going to be out more than 3 works days due to a medical issue, I'm required to file for short term disability.

Could I have tried to do it under the table? I suppose, but what if something went wrong and I wasn't able to return as scheduled?

Process wise, it depends on your company and their provider, but most likely you'll start the process by contacting your HR department or the insurance carrier, or both. They then request paperwork from the surgeon and make a case decision at that point. To be released back to work, the insurance carrier also typically needs the doctor to sign-off, so there will be a little more paperwork post surgery for you and the doctor.

For me personally, the thing that I have always hated about using short term disability is that 30% of my compensation is a bonus plan. The short term disability pays my salary at 100%, but my company does not use the disability pay when calculating my bonus, thus i lose a little bit of money overall.

Aside from that, you pay for the insurance so you might as well use it, right?

On 10/17/2022 at 17:16, SpartanMaker said:

I didn't really have a choice. Per my companies policy, if I'm going to be out more than 3 works days due to a medical issue, I'm required to file for short term disability.

Could I have tried to do it under the table? I suppose, but what if something went wrong and I wasn't able to return as scheduled?

Process wise, it depends on your company and their provider, but most likely you'll start the process by contacting your HR department or the insurance carrier, or both. They then request paperwork from the surgeon and make a case decision at that point. To be released back to work, the insurance carrier also typically needs the doctor to sign-off, so there will be a little more paperwork post surgery for you and the doctor.

For me personally, the thing that I have always hated about using short term disability is that 30% of my compensation is a bonus plan. The short term disability pays my salary at 100%, but my company does not use the disability pay when calculating my bonus, thus i lose a little bit of money overall.

Aside from that, you pay for the insurance so you might as well use it, right?

Thank you! How long did you take? Do you request a certain amount of days/weeks that your Dr. agrees upon and then if you don’t need that much time get them to sign off on going back to work? I just hear different people saying you only need a week which seems silly to take short term dis if that’s the case, but you make a good point, you never know…

35 minutes ago, AmandaD. said:

Thank you! How long did you take? Do you request a certain amount of days/weeks that your Dr. agrees upon and then if you don’t need that much time get them to sign off on going back to work? I just hear different people saying you only need a week which seems silly to take short term dis if that’s the case, but you make a good point, you never know…

We kind of played it by ear. My doctor suggested I ask for 6 weeks up front because that should be about the max I might want, even if we had major complications like having to do the surgery as an open procedure instead of laparoscopically.

I went into things actually expecting to only need roughly 2 weeks. At my 2 week follow-up, the PA and I agreed that I'd do another 2 weeks part time just to make sure I didn't overdo things and end up hurting my recovery. One of my biggest challenges with going back to work has been getting my fluids in. I sometimes forget to drink while I'm mentally focused on a task or in meetings. Pre-op, I could just gulp some water whenever and be fine, but that no longer works!

I think a lot of people can successfully go back to work sooner than i did, but I like that I had the freedom to choose what was right for me. I wasn't rushed to go back because I was worried about burning through my PTO hours, or because I'd only asked for a certain amount of time off.

Here's the thing. I had virtually no pain or nausea, so those weren't even considerations. The challenge for me was (and still is), that eating so little leaves me fairly fatigued and mentally drained. Even though I work from home, it was better for me to take a little more time to make sure I was ready to actually do what I'm paid to do. That said, I'm also 58. If I was younger, I probably could have started back sooner.

I know some people do successfully go back to work sooner than I did and understand some don't have the luxury to decide for themselves. In the end we all have to do what's right for us based on our own set of circumstances.

TL;DR: if you have the benefit, I'd definitely use it. You should be able to work with your bariatric team to decide when going back to work is right for you. (Which sounds a lot like a commercial for disability insurance, though I promise I don't work for an insurance company!)

I just used vacation and sick leave - but then, I wasn't out for very long. Most people are only out for two weeks - some even one week.

There is no option to use short term disability where I work. If you have enough sick and/or vacation time, you can use as much as your supervisor will approve. If you don't have any or enough, coworkers can donate time through an emergency leave bank. As a last resort, we can also borrow up to 240 hours of sick time, but that takes forever to pay back.

I took 3 1/2 weeks off and it was good that I did because I ran into some complications after being released. Fortunately for me, I have a very understanding boss who knew why I was taking the time and offered to let me take more if needed.

For my employer it was fmla and they paid 60% of my pay and I could use PTO to cover the other 40%. Short term disability only kicks in for me after 12 weeks and up to 6 months with the same scale for pay.

Knowing that, I actually scheduled my VSG for 45 days before my knee hardware removal and then went back to work 3 weeks after that so I could use fmla to cover both.

Either way my company has a claims line specifically for fmla and short term disability outside of HR as far as pay is concerned. I just had to notify HR 30 days prior that I was having surgery.

4 hours ago, AmandaD. said:

Hello!

Just starting my journey in the new year and wanted to start getting everything together. Did anyone use short term disability for their surgery rather than just take vacation? I have limited vacation days next year so I am trying to weigh my options. I know FMLA is an option but that has no pay, so I was wondering if anyone chose short term disability and what the process was?

Thank you!

When I read the terms and conditions of my short-term disability, I decided not to use it (I had to grant them access to EVERYTHING about me - mental health records, employment records, everything. And they said they might share it with others who won't keep it confidential. No thank you). I'd only be getting 60% of one week's pay, anyway.

3 hours ago, AmandaD. said:

Thank you! How long did you take? Do you request a certain amount of days/weeks that your Dr. agrees upon and then if you don’t need that much time get them to sign off on going back to work? I just hear different people saying you only need a week which seems silly to take short term dis if that’s the case, but you make a good point, you never know…

Well, this is something squarely in my wheelhouse! Maybe I can help.

You should first check your short-term disability policy (ask HR for a copy), because some of them have a 5- or 7-day elimination period, which is the number of days you have to be out before the benefit starts. So if the first week is not payable, it makes no sense to file a claim for just one week.

The amount of time off you need depends on the type of work you do. If you have a physical job (lots of standing, walking, lifting/carrying greater than 10 pounds), then your doctor will probably recommend you take more time off and the claim will be approved. If your job is mostly sitting at a desk, your doctor will have to give specific reasons for your inability to work. Depending on your procedure, most doctors already have a set number of weeks they will sign off on for recovery.

Either way, you aren't tied to the initial number of weeks you requested: you can always return to work sooner if you feel well enough, or you can apply for more time off if there were complications.

I work in claims so it really depends on what your company's STD offers. You could check with your HR. I took 2 weeks of STD and the first week of any STD is unpaid and with my company they made me use some of my PTO for that week. Mine is not divided out as Vacation and Sick. So one week was my time and the other week was paid by STD.

I am planning on using short term with FMLA.
I just used for hysterectomy and they called me at two weeks to see if I was back to work kr if they should extend claim.
It could vary by policy. I am calling today to get things started as they will have paperwork mg dr needs to fill out so I want to take it to my preop appointment.

Sent from my SM-G998U using BariatricPal mobile app