Hello,

My girlfriend and I work for the same company. She got pregnant in July. In November we had an open enrollment period in which she applied for Short term disabilty. We received a denial letter citing he being Pregnant as the reason. I know for Medical insurance this cannot be the case but I am finding out it works differently for short term disabilty. Can anybody offer a suggestion as to how we can go about getting her some kind of leave pay after the pregnancy? We cannot really afford to have her have no income so any suggestion would be very helpful.


Thanks.

Many STD policies have a waiting period. You cant be 8 months pregnant and have the policy for 1 month and collect your STD.
Our policy has a one year exclusion for pregnancy. You may not collect STD for 12 months after you start the policy if the absence is due to pregnancy.
Perhaps thats what your friend is encountering?

that would explain what is happening. do you know of any other way for us to get some type of leave pay for her? Another employee here told me that when she is on her leave she may be able to collect unemployment, is there any truth to that?

No, she cannot collect unemployment. Unemployment is not designed to replace disability insurance. In order to collect unemployment, a person has to have been terminated from their job, actively seeking another job, and ready to accept a new job when its offered. That won't be true in this case.