emtp699
02-28-2009, 01:51 PM
Here is the story.
My wife and i had a son January 19, 2009. She was off of work from that date to the present. Her employer knew and was given notice of her returning to work April 1st 2009. There was no problem at the time. We received a letter in the mail today February 28, 2009 that her medical benifits were terminated February 3, 2009. Now my wife is supposed to be out on disability leave as defined in her employee manual. (We are not sure if FMLA applies to our situation because the number of employees hovers around that magic number of 50)
Here are my concerns:
1. We were not given any prior notice to the termination of benefits from her employer. We found out 22 days later via the letter from the insurance company.
2. After the date of termination, which we knew nothing about, my newborn son stopped breathing and was revived and spent 5 days in a NICU unit at the local hospital. You can only imagine the testing and medicines given and the cost of these procedures. NOW ARE GOING TO BE OUT OF POCKET. We were told by the hospital that my son is going to be on my wife's insurance for the first 90 days and then he will be eligable to be transferred to my insurance.
3. He was sent home on a piece of medical equipment that will now be taken from him or paid for out of pocket because apparently he is not covered under any insurance. He will be on mine come Monday but i don't believe any retroactive treatments of equipment will be covered by my insurance.
Even if we throw FMLA out the window in this situation, her employee manual which spells out the requirements for disability leave state the employee has 6 weeks of leave and during this 6 weeks the employer will provide medical insurance to the employee and the employee is still responsible for paying their portion of the premium. (We never received any information to pay this portion ofthe premium).
The six week period will be up on March 3 2009.
Was it right or is the employer able to go against their own written policy and take the benefits away during disability leave as defined in their employee handbook.
FMLA guidelines also state that if a period of time is not going to be covered by FMLA or the company is exempt from FMLA guidelines that the employee must be notified of this and given the reason why the leave is not covered under FMLA. We were not notified of anything.
If FMLA is in play here, I know the answer is easy.
Thank you for reading.
My wife and i had a son January 19, 2009. She was off of work from that date to the present. Her employer knew and was given notice of her returning to work April 1st 2009. There was no problem at the time. We received a letter in the mail today February 28, 2009 that her medical benifits were terminated February 3, 2009. Now my wife is supposed to be out on disability leave as defined in her employee manual. (We are not sure if FMLA applies to our situation because the number of employees hovers around that magic number of 50)
Here are my concerns:
1. We were not given any prior notice to the termination of benefits from her employer. We found out 22 days later via the letter from the insurance company.
2. After the date of termination, which we knew nothing about, my newborn son stopped breathing and was revived and spent 5 days in a NICU unit at the local hospital. You can only imagine the testing and medicines given and the cost of these procedures. NOW ARE GOING TO BE OUT OF POCKET. We were told by the hospital that my son is going to be on my wife's insurance for the first 90 days and then he will be eligable to be transferred to my insurance.
3. He was sent home on a piece of medical equipment that will now be taken from him or paid for out of pocket because apparently he is not covered under any insurance. He will be on mine come Monday but i don't believe any retroactive treatments of equipment will be covered by my insurance.
Even if we throw FMLA out the window in this situation, her employee manual which spells out the requirements for disability leave state the employee has 6 weeks of leave and during this 6 weeks the employer will provide medical insurance to the employee and the employee is still responsible for paying their portion of the premium. (We never received any information to pay this portion ofthe premium).
The six week period will be up on March 3 2009.
Was it right or is the employer able to go against their own written policy and take the benefits away during disability leave as defined in their employee handbook.
FMLA guidelines also state that if a period of time is not going to be covered by FMLA or the company is exempt from FMLA guidelines that the employee must be notified of this and given the reason why the leave is not covered under FMLA. We were not notified of anything.
If FMLA is in play here, I know the answer is easy.
Thank you for reading.
