I am having a hard time figuring out when you can ask an employee for an FMLA Medical Certification when the employee is pregnant?

We receive medical certification once the employee has given birth.  If they are being put on disability due to a complication of pregnancy, then we request medical certification at the time of that event. 

 

efeldman:

We receive medical certification once the employee has given birth.  If they are being put on disability due to a complication of pregnancy, then we request medical certification at the time of that event. 

I ask for certification at the first incident of lost work time.  Pre-natal care is also covered and those appointments often interfere with work schedules.  I avoid a lot of drama by discussing the form in detail and explaining that it's not important if the date of birth on the form doesn't line up with the data the child is born.

Thanks for the feedback. I have always requested a medical certification for the birth of a child/pregancy, then I read something online stating that you could only ask for a medical certification for a serious health condition and not for pregnancy and got really confused!!

If you wish, I can dig up some stuff from DOL on this but, essentially, being pregnant is a serious health condition for the purposes of the act.

Ok now I'm confused. I know you were speaking of DOL but my understanding is that pregnancy is not a category under a serious health condition in FML. It can be handled under FML a bit differently as guided by DOL opinions, but not as a serious health condition unless there is a complication, as I understand it.

I understood that a medical certification cannot be asked for simply based on the pregnancy. We are bound by the health care provider and mother once we are notified that there is a problem or when the EE becomes a safety issue to themselves (not the baby) or to others. I have always found that strange but that is the law. In other words if an employee cannot don their protective gear rather it is from a male with a fractured bone or swelling from built up fluid from pregnancy, the issue is safety for both cases not the pregnancy itself. Both people would be relieved of duty under FML until such time they could don the required protective gear.

I'm not an expert so someone please set me straight on any part of this so I can make sure I am doing the right thing.

cappy:

I'm not an expert

I'm pretty comfortable with FMLA.

18.     0     29 C.F.R. §§ 825.114(a)(1),(2).  The FMLA regulations
explain that "inpatient care" means at least an overnight stay at a
health care facility, and includes any related period of incapacity
or subsequent treatment relating back to the inpatient care.  Id. at
§ 825.114(a)(1).  "Continuing treatment by a health care provider"
covers five situations: (1) incapacity of more than three consecutive
calendar days that involves either (a) treatment two or more times by
a health care provider (or under the direction or orders of a health
care provider), or (b) treatment by a health care provider on at least
one occasion resulting in a regimen of continuing treatment under the
supervision of the health care provider; (2) any period of incapacity
due to pregnancy, or for prenatal care; (3) any period of incapacity
or treatment due to a chronic serious health condition requiring
periodic visits for treatment, including episodic conditions such as
asthma, diabetes, and epilepsy; (4) a period of incapacity which is
permanent or long-term due to a condition for which treatment may not
be effective, although the individual is under the continuing
supervision of a health care provider  (e.g., Alzheimer's, severe
stroke, or the terminal stages of a disease); and (5) any period of
absence to receive multiple treatments from a health care provider
(or on orders or referral from a health care provider) for restorative
surgery or for a condition that would likely result in an absence of
more than three consecutive calendar days without treatment (e.g.,
cancer (chemotherapy, radiation), severe arthritis (physical therapy),
kidney disease (dialysis)).  Id. at § 825.114 (a)(2).

http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/fmlaada.html 

So, without taking things to the extreme: a pregnant person going to a prenatal care appointment with a healtch care profider, a pregnant person with pregnancy induced hypertension put on bed rest are entitled to the same FMLA protections.  Additionally, be aware that a person who is pregnant and who becomes ill with, say, strep throat, may be treated differently than a non-pregnant individual because the infection may be viewed as a serious health condition because the patient is pregnant and therefore treated more conservatively (e.g., bed rest for a week, constituting incapacity for more than 3 days).  So, although the mere fact of being pregnant is not in and of itself a serious health condition, and I didn't mean for it to be taken so literally, pretty much everything connected with prenatal care (my original statement) is covered and, moreover, many kinds of common illnesses become serious health conditions when they afflict a pregnant person because the standard of care will be more conservative.

There is nothing wrong with asking for a cert when someone goes to a pre-natal check up because that is time that should be counted against their FMLA alotment.

Know something. . .you hit on the problem I was having. Even though I knew the things you posted, I did take your previous response too literally. Thanks for taking the time to get me back on the right track.

cappy:

Know something. . .you hit on the problem I was having. Even though I knew the things you posted, I did take your previous response too literally. Thanks for taking the time to get me back on the right track.

Glad to help.  FMLA is a jungle that mixes the trees of statutory and regulatory fact with the vines and weeds of unsettled law.  It's maddening.

Glad to help.  FMLA is a jungle that mixes the trees of statutory and regulatory fact with the vines and weeds of unsettled law.  It's maddening.

 

Just to let you know . . . that is a great analogy. I will be using that sentence as a direct quote in my next 'what a supervisor needs to know' class.