leave without pay?!?

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michellep

Alright, I am tapping into the braintrust here at VR.com...
I am a public school teacher. Recently I found out that not only does my health insurance only pay 80% of all the bills (plus a $400 deductable), but I also only have 12 days of sick leave. After that, I will be leave without pay. I have long term disability but that kicks in after 6 months. No short term disability. We have a "sick leave bank" but somehow my paperwork did not get processed when I was hired (unknown to me)so I do not have that option (plus, you have to be out 30 days before you can access it anyway).
I am really worried about going back to work too soon. I teach 6 year olds-not exactly a relaxing, quiet job.
Are there any other resources I can tap into? I live and work in Virginia.
I have already read the old threads...
 
Ask your HR people about FMLA. Family/Medical Leave Act allows for 12 weeks or so of unpaid leave with job protection. This is in addition to your 12 days of paid sick leave you're entitled to; however, your sick leave is probably metered at one day per month, accumulative only through a specific 12 month period. Pam O knows much more about this; HR was my former life, it is her current job.

Best wishes
 
Hi Michelle:

My insurance has a cap on out-of-pocket expenditures so that when my 20% reaches $4,000 (this is a family limit) my insurance starts paying at 100%. Maybe your insurance has a similar cap?
 
I know that I have job protection under the FMLA. I was just trying to avoid the financial pain of loosing income. Especially when there is a possibility that I could have complications and be out for a longer period than 6 weeks.
 
michellep said:
I know that I have job protection under the FMLA. I was just trying to avoid the financial pain of loosing income. Especially when there is a possibility that I could have complications and be out for a longer period than 6 weeks.

I re-read your post. Sorry, I guess I wasn't awake and didn't get the jist of AVOIDING leave without pay. I'll probably remove my posts from this thread since they're not applicable really. Best wishes to you.

Wise
 
Wise, I appreciate your input, none-the-less.
P.J., I will check on the cap. Keep your fingers crossed!
 
Michelle,

Almost every health insurance policy has an out of pocket cap - it just varies from policy to policy (usually in the range of $2-$5 thousand).

As far as the sick pay pool goes - I am not sure how it works for your job but you should not let someone botching up paperwork to result in you losing benefits you are entitled to. That is something you should raise a stink about if it will get you additional paid leave.

As far as expenses go, sometimes churches or other community groups have funds available to help people in need. Even if they can't help with mortgage payments or the like, they may be able to provide food which will certainly help financially. Also, if you have meds you take, check with Walmart to find out if they are on their $4 generic list. This can be a real pocket book saver.
 
Just did some research and found that I do have an insurance cap of $6,000 (whew!). I know that the parents from my class will be helping in one way or another. :)
I was stressing to think that I would have a $20,000 bill.
 
Michelle, I did the same thing! I was freaking till I called my insurance and my out of pocket was $1500...whew! Got the EOB from the surgery and insurance paid the full bill of $52k (it was originally $99k, but they have a contract with the insurance). So, because of all my other bills this year, this surgery cost me about $400 or so left in my out of pocket.

I qualified for the family leave thing and I signed up for short term disabilty at the beginning of the school year. I haven't heard from them but I'll bet you I won't get it because they'll claim I knew I'd have to have surgery....which isn't true, I didn't find out for sure until a month later. I only had 5 sick days in my bank to take off so I'm sort of in the same boat.

The deal is, you can't stress over it, do your best but just remember that this is your life you're talking about. You need the surgery now and it is what it is!!!! :)
 
Although from another country, having worked in a legal environment, my immediate thought was the same as Gina's. If someone messed up your paperwork then you ought not be out of pocket, this should be laid at the feet of the employer of the person who made the error, they ought to have some form of insurance to protect them against the actions/errors of employees.

Good luck, you just don't need the extra stress at present.
 
Hi Michelle

What about any of your colleagues donating a sick day each???? We had a teacher in my school who was going to be out for about 6 months, and we went to the super and told him what we wanted to do and it was done.....if the super doesn't listen, go to the school board....the squeaky wheel gets the grease!!!

I'm not sure how big your school is down in VA, but even if you only have 35 teachers/staff, that's a month and a half of school.

Evelyn
 
Glad to hear that there is a maximum out-of-pocket on your insurance. We have a sick leave bank in my district too, but as you say, you must be out for at least 30 days before it will kick in. I agree with seeing if your coworkers can donate. We tried that for a lady at my school who had a very high risk pregnancy and had to miss several weeks. Unfortunately, they said they didn't have anything set up, and she would have to apply to the sick leave bank after 30 days, but maybe your policy is different.
 
Michelle,
That doesn't sound right to me at all. I'm also a public school teacher, and had to go on medical leave last April when I needed valve surgery. I had 31 days saved up, but then the district paid me at half-rate (actually sub pay) after the days were used until the end of the school year.

Forgive me for not reading everyone else's posts first, but there has to be some way your district will continue paying you after your sick days are gone. I haven't had much experience (thankfully!) with legal issues regarding my school district, but this seems to me like a legal issue. I seriously haven't heard of any school district, no matter how big or small, not paying its teachers when they're on medical leave. (Administrative leave yes, medical leave, no). Have you submitted a doctor's note to the district office? Try speaking with your HR director as well. I saw her the day my cardio put me on medical leave, and she explained how I would still get somewhat of a paycheck until the end of the school year. We get 90 days of post-sick day "use-up" leave for medical reasons. If that doesn't work, talk to your union rep.

Hoping the best for you--
Debi (debster913)

P.S. Be very careful about applying for short-term disability. I looked into it shortly before I was put on official medlical leave, and I didn't qualify because of a "pre-existing condition."
 
Michelle
We have all been there and seemed to make it through somehow. It is never easy to make financial plans to be off for weeks and months. In the year 2005 I was in the hospital 5 times for stents, ICD, one open heart surgery, ablations and one bleed. The tally submitted to the insurance company that year was 764,000 dollars. Our cap was $2500. When I balance it out in my mental ledger I came out ahead since how would one ever cover the costs of all the hospitalizations. Try not to let it overwhelm you.
 
Very good ideas. I'll contact HR and see what I can do. Thank you so much!!!
 
Michelle,

Good luck in resolving this.

Luckily, when I had my 2003 surgery, I was with an employer that, at the time, had "unlimited" (sorta) short term disability, which meant that for the entire 2 months I was out ... I was paid ... and didn't lose ANY vacation days. My insurance at the time did have a out-of-pocket cap, such that I was OK at the end of the year.

Unfortunately, the last 2 jobs I've had (including the call center job I hated ... and my current job that I love, except for the "fighting traffic" commute) did and do NOT have short term disability ... at all. So, if I have surgery (which is not likely, soon, except, of course, to replace the pacemaker, which will need to be done in the first 6 months of this year), I'll be SOL ... literally.

This is one thing that has always bothered me. Us heart patients (and others with similar issues) pay twice for our condition ... having it in the first place ... and the costs and time it takes from us.

*shakes head*



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"We never stop to think what we consume" ... Bellamy Brothers ... 'Kids Of The Baby Boom'
 
Another thing that you may want to look at is a closer look at the contract (possibly with a Building Rep from your union)...after having congestive heart failure last year, I ended up using alot of my built-up days (now only 16 days left for a re-do valve replacement in Feb.). The point is, in our contract, there is a clause granting an additional 30 paid school days beyond your sick days due to long-term illness/surgery - worth looking into.
 
Michelle -

Yeah, this part of it all stinks. The companies seem to be letting the benefits dwindle all the time. I've been with the same company for 25 years which is strange for a computer techie like me. Anyway, for what it's worth my deal is that we get 10 sick days/year. You're expected to save them up for if/when you have something major. Well, for me I have 10 sick days in the bank right now, I seem to use them about as fast as they accumulate because (likely due to the valve issue) every little cold I get wipes the floor with me and I end up taking time off work. With 2 boys in public schools I get everything that goes around, I can't imagine what it's like *working* in the schools. Our disability kicks in at either 7 days or 30 days depending on what you pay for. It runs for 180 days max. I, of course, elected the 7 day option but it costs me more from my paycheck. Now, I'm glad I have it. After 7 days (ie. 5 working days off as sick) I will kick into a 60% of pay from the insurance for the remainder of my disability as determined by the Dr's. I think, but am not certain, that the 60% I get may not be taxed the same as my regular paycheck which means the hit to me won't be as bad. I don't have the gumption right now to figure all that out, it is what it is and I have no choice anyway, I need the surgery and need it now.

What is amazing to me when I think about it is how with a 30 day plan you are required to use sick leave, then vacation leave in that order to fill up the time before the disability insurance kicks in. This means that most folks come back to work after a *major* surgery with virtually no sick leave and no vacation acrued. Companies often suspend acrual during FMLA. That's one reason I want to be really well before returning, seems to me if you play the hero and return prematurely and then get sick nobody knows 'ya and you may not have time to take. Maybe this is just my current psychology of planning for being sick a lot, something I do to accomodate living with advanced valve disease and I just need to get past it but to me it seems pretty rough.

Earlier in my career I remember better policies, where you got paid while you were out for illness and didn't have to burn up all your sick/vacation time. Times are changing, still, you are right to question everything you can.

Best of luck in your return to school this week! My boys start back to school tomorrow.

Ruth
 
This wasn't at all the case for me when I had OHS 15 years ago. I have no idea whether or how much it has changed since then.

I was working for GE Research at that time and I had up to 4 weeks of sick time plus 4 weeks of vacation. GE had another (unpublished) policy called salary continuance available to exempt professionals where the department manager could simply cover you at full pay, extending the sick time for the full 6 weeks. I returned in mid-September after 6 weeks and still had 4 weeks vacation to take before year end, so I worked half days for a while and still had enough for 2 weeks off at Christmas time.

There are drawbacks to working for a giant company but this wasn't one of them. The salary continuance thing was an HR "secret" which the rank and file didn't normally know about. That is to say, if they liked you they'd let you know how to apply for it, otherwise you'd never know. And it was the Dept. manager's discretion whether to give you the extra 2 weeks or not.
 

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