University Health Associates

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University Health Associates

• My employee needs to be off work
• What do I do?

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from slide to slide.
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Ask yourself

• Will they need to be off more than 7 days?
• Yes They will need to complete a Family Medical
  Leave Request Form or Physician Statement and
  submit it to you and Human Resources
• No They will just need a physician statement to
  attach to their timesheet

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What Next?

• They submitted my form, now what?
• Once they have submitted their Leave Request
  Form, Human Resources will determine what type of
  leave they are eligible for.
• Family Medical Leave of Absence
• Medical Leave of Absence

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What is Family Medical Leave of Absence

• The FMLA allows employees to balance their work
  and family life by taking reasonable unpaid leave
  for certain family and medical reasons.
• Employees are entitled to take up to 12-weeks of
  unpaid leave if they meet the eligibility
  criteria for FMLA
• The employees job is protected during this leave
  in most cases

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FMLA Eligibility

• To be eligible for FMLA, an employee must meet
  all of the following requirements
• Must be a full-time or part-time regular employee
• Temporary employees and students are not eligible
• Employed by UHA for at least 12 months
• Worked at least 1,250 hours in the previous 12
  months
• Meet the family or medical criteria for the FMLA
  Act.

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Reasons to take FMLA

• An employee is granted leave for any of the
  following reasons
• Birth and care of a newborn child of the employee
• Placement of a child for adoption or foster care
  for the newly placed child
• Care for immediate family member(spouse, child or
  parent) with a serious health condition
• Medical leave for the employee when they are
  unable to work due to their own serious health
  condition

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UHA Specifics of FMLA

• 12-weeks entitlement is over a rolling calendar
  year
• UHA will determine eligible time by verifying any
  previous time used in the previous 12 months from
  the first day of the leave being requested
• Example - May 1, 2005 you request a leave through
  May 31, 2005. UHA will look back to May 1, 2004
  to see if you had taken a FMLA during that time
  and if so, how many weeks were used. If you took
  a 2 week leave August 1, 2004 - August 14, 2004,
  then you will only be eligible for 10 weeks for
  the May 1, 2005 leave since you had taken 2 weeks
  within the past 12 months.
• Additionally, once you get to August 1, 2005, you
  will also regain the days you used prior in 2004
  since the calendar continually moves as you
  progress through your leave.

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UHA Specifics of FMLA

• Who are immediate family members
• Employees spouse (includes common-law)
• Employees parents (not in-laws or grandparents)
• Employees children(biological, step, adopted or
  foster)
• In some cases, if the child is an adult, over the
  age of 18, you may not be eligible to take FMLA.
  The adult child must be incapable of self-care
  due to a mental or a physical disability.

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UHA Specifics of FMLA

• Serious Health Condition as certified by a
  health care provider
• Inpatient care
• Incapacity for three consecutive days with
  continuing treatment by health care provider
• Pregnancy or prenatal care
• Treatment for incapacity due to chronic health
  condition

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UHA Specifics of FMLA

• Unpaid leave versus paid leave
• The FMLA Act allows employers to substitute paid
  leave for the period of time taken under FMLA
• UHA requires an employee to use their Short-Term
  Disability and, in some cases, their Paid Time
  Off when on FMLA

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Serious Health Conditions

• Some examples of health conditions considered
  serious under FMLA
• cancer, Alzheimer's, severe stroke, illness
  requiring hospice care, asthma, or other severe
  chronic conditions
• Some examples of health conditions not considered
  serious under FMLA
• common cold, flu, dental, orthodontics, acne
  treatments, and normal physician visits

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Who is a Health Care Provider?

• A Health Care Provider is
• Physician
• Podiatrist
• Dentist
• Clinical Psychologist
• Optometrist
• Chiropractor licensed in our state
• Mid-Level Provider Nurse Practitioner, Physician
  Assistant, Clinical Social Worker
• Christian Science Practitioner

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Who is not a Health Care Provider?

• A Health Care Provider is not
• Registered Nurse
• Physical Therapist
• Counselor
• Front Office Staff
• Technician or Technologist

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Paid Leave Substitution

• The Paid-Leave Substitution follows the same
  premise as our Short-Term Disability policy
• Inpatient, invasive or evasive procedures or
  emergent care for serious health conditions give
  an employee immediate access to STD and continued
  access to STD for the period of incapacity
• Three or more days of incapacity without one of
  the above reasons requires the employee to take
  the first 2 days of incapacity as PTO, then they
  can access STD on the third day. To continue
  accessing STD for the remainder of the illness,
  the employee would need a physician statement
• The employee can choose to access PTO once they
  have exhausted their STD for FMLA except for
  pregnancies extending beyond the normal recovery
  times. In some cases of a Medical Leave, the
  employee may be required to access PTO once they
  have exhausted their STD, as well.

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Full FMLA or Intermittent FMLA

• Full FMLA
• Off work for 7 or more consecutive days
• Time is taken in 8 hour days
• Intermittent FMLA
• Off work intermittently over a specific time
  period
• Time is taken as needed in hourly increments,
  periodically during the specified time period

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UHA Intermittent FMLA Specifics

• For Intermittent FMLA, UHA will allow the
  employee to access STD or PTO depending on the
  reason for the leave
• For periodic treatments for chronic illness, the
  employee can access STD
• For periodic follow-up physician visits, the
  employee can access PTO
• Remember we still follow the STD policy when
  determining the type of paid leave to
  substitute.

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Certification of Leave

• Certification (physician statement) or the Family
  Medical Leave Request form must be submitted to
  Human Resources as soon as possible or prior to a
  leave known in advance
• If certification is not received within 30 days
  of the first day of the leave, the leave can be
  denied for FMLA.
• For intermittent leave, employees should provide
  a physician statement to their supervisor for
  each occurrence to ensure the appropriate Paid
  Leave is used.

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Recertification

• UHA requires employees on an intermittent leave
  to recertify the need for the leave annually
• UHA requires employees to recertify any time
  there is a change in the original leave request

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Returning from Leave

• UHA requires all employees returning from FMLA to
  present a Return-to-work slip prior to working
• Return-to-work slips are to be presented to
  supervisors and HR
• If the leave was for a family member, a
  return-to-work slip is preferred however, a
  verbal notification can be given to the
  supervisor and HR

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My employee is not eligible for FMLANow What?

• If your employee does not meet the eligibility
  for FMLA, they may still qualify for a Medical
  Leave of Absence
• Medical Leave of Absence entitles the employee to
  up to 6 months or 26 weeks of leave for serious
  health conditions.
• UHA uses the same criteria for determining
  medical need for a Medical Leave of Absence as we
  use for FMLA

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Medical Leave Specifics

• Medical Leaves run concurrent with all other
  leaves. An employee can only be authorized to be
  off the job a total of 6 months/26 weeks in a
  rolling calendar year
• Example - they have exhausted your FMLA
  entitlement (12 weeks) and need to be out again
  for 6 weeks. This would be a Medical Leave, but
  they would only have 8 weeks remaining of Medical
  Leave at the end of the current 6 week request.
• Still follows a rolling calendar year

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Medical Leave Specifics

• Immediate Family
• Same as the FMLA
• Serious Health Conditions
• Same as the FMLA
• Paid Leave Substitution
• Same as the FMLA
• Certification/Recertification
• Same as the FMLA
• Health Care Providers
• Same as the FMLA

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As a supervisor, what do I do?

• My employee has notified me he/she may be off for
  more than 7 days. What do I need to do?
• Make sure you get the appropriate form from your
  employee prior to the leave ensure all the
  information requested on the form is complete
• If he/she do not have the appropriate form in
  advance, instruct your employee on the
  appropriate form he/she needs to request a leave
• If you do not get the appropriate form from the
  employee within a week of the first day of leave,
  you should follow-up with the employee to ensure
  you get the appropriate form. Delays in getting
  the form can impact whether the leave is approved
  or denied and the employees paid leave balances
  can be inappropriately charged
• Forward copies of the form to HR upon receipt for
  processing of the employees leave

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As a supervisor, what do I do?

• While my employee is out on a leave, what do I
  need to do?
• When on leave, keep in contact with your employee
  to make sure nothing has changed
• If something has changed with his/her leave,
  request an updated physician statement indicating
  the change
• Communicate any changes in the leave to HR
  forward the appropriate forms upon receipt
• Complete a timesheet for the employee, and make
  sure to keep a copy for their files upon their
  return

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As a supervisor, what do I do?

• My employee is preparing to return to work, what
  do I need to do?
• Contact the employee to verify the return-to-work
  date and if there will be any limitations or
  restrictions associated with the return
• If there are limitations or restrictions, contact
  HR to discuss there are no light duty positions
  in which to place the employee. The return may
  need to be delayed, or the hours of work may need
  to be adjusted, to accommodate the employees
  limitations pr restrictions upon returning to
  work
• Require a return-to-work slip prior to the return
  date or on the date of the return before the
  employee begins the work day
• Make sure HR gets a copy of the return-to-work
  slip upon receipt

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Resources

• Family Medical Leave Request Form
• UHAonline under Human Resources - Forms
• Family Medical Leave FAQ
• UHAonline under Human Resources - Frequently
  asked questions
• Human Resources is available to answer your
  specific questions
• 293-4270