No other advice, @greatlakesmom, but want to let you know my thoughts and prayers are with your mom and you.
GLM, be persistent. What worked for me was to fill out the forms myself, representing the situation as accurately as I could (I am also in health care) and have the patient’s primary provider then review and sign at a visit. I did not leave for signatures. I took the papers with me.
But many employers have puzzling criteria; at one point I was denied FMLA for my spouse because he was hospitalized and had care so did not require mine. Resubmitted and approved.
mominva, right. I have done that, and faxed both blank and filled out. If there in person, it would be very helpful to force the issue. My big issue was not understanding who was ultimately responsible, the primary provider or the hospitalist when I was out there for the brief visit. It took a few days for me to realize that I would need to leave the papers with the primary and then wait for their office to open on Monday. Then they refused to fill out all the papers till after she was seen in clinic. My organization needs to the information that the primary is ultimately responsible on the instructions for FMLA paperwork imho.
Yesterday after starting this thread, I ran into an acquaintance who is a clinic RN. She stated that it is the responsibility of the primary. Her suggestion is to talk to the RN, and if that does not get results, then talk to the clinic manager. One of the reasons we are switching primaries is because she does not attend to details as we would like. However, I am unsure as to how the information on hospitalization gets to the primary in their system. Arizona has far more fragmented health care than my state, in terms of electronic networking and my impression is that she knew nothing about the hospitalization. I may try to snail mail those papers with a letter and see if they will still sign the papers for that time period.
twoin, that makes sense regarding vacation time, if unkind to families in crisis. Fortunately my employer will allow this as non paid time and I’m only looking for a week or two.
It doesn’t make intuitive sense to me that the primary care physician would always be responsible. In my daughter’s case, her PCP had literally never heard of the illness she was ultimately diagnosed with (it’s rare and fairly recently identified). He knew she was hospitalized and frequently checked her status. But the hospital was in a far better position to know her needs.
Although I’d imagine at this point you don’t care who does them, just that they get done.
Someone mentioned hospital social workers earlier. I think that is who we gave our forms to. We found ours to be helpful with a number of logistical issues.
I appreciate your info regarding the hospital having done that for you. It made far better sense to me as well, as the person seeing her knew her condition, also not so common, the lab work, and could see the details of prognosis and so on clearly in front of him. But he flat out refused, so I was not about to argue, this being the first refusal. The discharge was over the weekend, and the single social worker was flying around arranging for home care, walker and so on. But it was the rehab social worker who facilitated the completion yesterday. Hooray for social workers, who really tie the details together!
OP’s experience is very different from mine. In 1992, I used FMLA after giving birth. I also used up all my accrued vacation time. I was almost laid off before my return (and actually had to interview for a new position), but the company had been going through rounds of layoffs in the preceding years. I did not feel that I became “layoff bait” because of my exercise of the FMLA. I don’t recall filling out any paperwork. I do remember writing a check to pay for some of my benefits during the unpaid period – probably my employee contribution that was normally withheld from my paycheck.
Fast forward to 2012 and I almost took FMLA because my dad was terminal. I met with HR and my supervisor to let them know of my plans. It ended up that my dad passed away 2 days before my leave was scheduled to start. But again, there was no paperwork requirement (or at least, I didn’t learn of any.)
The first was a very large corporation (tens of thousands of employees); the second company was smaller (I think we have over 1000 employees.)
My best to you during this very difficult time (when nobody needs bureaucratic hassles.)
When my son came home from SC for a week to help us make the move to Houston and to be with us for a few days at the beginning of the 6 weeks of his Dad’s daily treatments at MD Anderson, he didn’t know anything about FMLA so just took vacation. His firm actually called him to tell him he could have taken FMLA and let him arrange it retroactively. He did have to get a form signed by one of our doctors. I dont recall it being overly intrusive. It was paid in his case. Maybe that varies by firm.
Swimcats, your S seems to have a good and kind employer. I’m glad it worked out for you and him, and am very heartened after your long ago posts that your H seems to be doing well.
My employer requires 4 pages of questions, some of which don’t make a great deal of sense for a declining 93 year old.
The end of the story is that I received final denial today. The rehab provider filled out the paperwork to some extent. My case worker at the agency stated it needed clarification on a number of points. I argued some, suggested answers to the final sticky question that she approved, and faxed that completed paper as well as a blank back to Arizona after talking with the social worker again last week. The provider never filled out that page to refax. I spoke with the social worker a number of times over the last week, but she could not force him to do anything and he was not in house till yesterday.
I will write a letter to all the entities involved, explaining how their sequential deferrals were far more than an inconvenience for me and my family.
Fortunately my mom is home, doing well, and the crisis is receding into the background though I still think I could help in many useful ways were I to be allowed a trip to Arizona using FMLA as non paid time off. Vacations time is subject to a long approval process in my hospital.
bluebayou, I have reflected on your comment that a business has no reason to fill out the paperwork. That approach is one of the reasons many feel that health care should be seen as a public service rather than having to conform to a business model.
I appreciate the various stories posted as I continue to follow up.