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Sunshine
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Quote Sunshine Replybullet Topic: Incomplete Med Cert
    Posted: 13 - Apr - 2012 at 8:43pm
In Dec. 2011, an employee submitted a med cert to the facility HR Manager.  We use the DOL Med Cert.  The HR Manager did not send notice of designation to the employee. 
 
This week, the facility HRD informs me that the employee appears physcially incapable of doing her job.  Further, she was out sick and submitted a list of meds to the HR Manager that contains some heavy narcotics. The HR Manager is concerned that the employee is a safety risk.
 
I reviewed the Med Cert and in Part B: Amount Of Leave Needed, the dr. checked YES to item #5 and then wrote "unable to predict."
 
The HR Manager has now sent the notice indicating that we are unable to designate the leave as FMLA because of insufficient information. The employee submitted the med cert 4 1/2 months ago. 
 
Isn't it too late  to inform the employee her intermittent leave used over the past 4 months is not FMLA covered? That would make her intermittent absences subject to the disciplinary process. Could that be construed as harm?  May would be six months from her original notice of her need to use leave.  Can we request an updated Med Cert and then deny leave if the doctor still doesn't indicate the period of incapacitation needed? 
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pjenvic
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Quote pjenvic Replybullet Posted: 16 - Apr - 2012 at 10:03am
Big can of worms if you HR Manager wants to 'take away' FMLA designation.  They've mess up first by not sending the notice of designation.  If the Med Cert was incomplete, it should have been addressed right away...not 4 months later.   Have her recertify and make her aware that the MD needs be very specific on the certification (she has 15 days to get it back to you)  and that if it is incomplete, she will have 5 business day to correct it, otherwise, you cannot approve FMLA. 
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Quote timk Replybullet Posted: 16 - Apr - 2012 at 4:23pm
I agree it's a mess.

You have a duty to provide the employee sufficient notice of his/her FMLA status once you have information about the possible need for leave. In this case, the EE provided notice but you never responded. As such, s/he was unaware of whether it was covered leave or not. Therefore, you will probably not be able to calculate the time into the available FMLA bank.

This means his/her 12 weeks starts fresh instead of counting all the time used already.

Declining the original FMLA is probably not an issue as long as s/he got the benefits of time off, insurance benefits and job maintenance. If s/he did not then you have another issue but, for now, the real issue is probably going forward.

I agree recertification is appropriate. In addition, a prompt response is due if the certification is returned completed. If not, then you can seek additional information and/or use your own doctor as allowed.

Note: I am going to diverge slightly from Pjenvic. Under 825.305 - 15 days is the standard but the regulations also say:

[The employee must return the certification within 15 days] unless it is not practicable under the particular circumstances to do so despite the employee's diligent, good faith efforts or the employer provides more than 15 calendar days to return the requested certification.

Given the history, I would not be too quick to seek strict adherence to that 15 days.    
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