posted
i've been out of work on fmla leave for two months. I was just diag with lyme ( cdc possitive) babesia and mycoplasma.My fmla is soon to run out. Will my std claim be approved? I saw a llnp do they usually help you with paperwork to get time off from work?
Posts: 137 | From New england | Registered: Aug 2012
| IP: Logged |
I struggled for a year but it was too much. I didn't realize I was slurring my words and limping. My boss had to send me home.
HR handled most of the paperwork, my employer has been very supportive. My LLMD approved it, she put it in for 3 months but will add more time if needed. I fell asleep in my LLMD's waiting room a week before, the walk from the parking lot was too much, so my LLMD knew I was getting worse.
Here's what I found in my three experiences with short-term disability...... 1) A competent HR Dept. is crucial 2) Your doctor can't have ANY doubts about your ability to work. 3) Be prepared to jump through hoops with your STD provider. Neurological problems make this extremely difficult. They make it a complicated process.
These are a little long-winded but reinforce my comments above:
Episode #1 -the first time I had grand-mal seizures in 2003 (my LLMD thinks they were Lyme related). I worked for a large company (55,000 employees) and HR handled absolutely everything (seizures happened at work, spent a couple of days in intensive care). The seizures wiped me out for weeks so was very grateful. Under Mass. law I couldn't drive for 6 months so they kept me out for 6 months.
Episode #2 - three years later had seizures again, but working for a smaller company with an incompetent HR lady who should've been greeting shoppers at WalMart. I'd moved to NH, under NH law I was supposed to surrender my license for a full year (I'm a field tech, have to drive). As a smaller company I had to submit the paperwork provided by HR myself. The insurance company denied the claim saying no doctors said I couldn't work despite ER doctors and my neurologist saying I can't drive. I went to the useless oxygen thief in HR to ask for help....she just said "there's nothing I can do" and refused to help. I was in no way mentally prepared to do battle, grand-mal seizures short circuit everything.......
Episode #3 - currently on STD for late neurologic Lyme and IV abx. Same employer but increased from 200 to 1100 employees since 2006. HR lady is now "HR Director" but has a staff of competent HR people to do her job for her. My boss initiated the paperwork with HR and wrote a letter to my LLMD urging to approve STD. HR, my doctor, and my wife are all working together to manage what's happening.
As I said, your HR Dept and doctor play major roles here. It's really up to your doctor to tell the insurance company you can't work and needs to explain why, but HR needs to know the paperwork and the process. I still can't follow it, my wife is handling it for me.
I wish you the best of luck. If I got denied STD again I'd lose my house. I'm the sole source of income for a family of four.
Posts: 99 | From Cali | Registered: Dec 2011
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic