Pregnant and not eligible for FMLA

[dermres120]

I recently started a new job and found out shortly after that I was pregnant. I'm currently only about 6 weeks pregnant and therefore haven't told my employer. From my reading online, I would not be eligible for FMLA because I have not been with the company for at least 1 year.

My question is, how does time off work if I am not eligible for FMLA? Would I only be allowed to take my accrued PTO or do you think I can still take 12 weeks? I'm not counting on them offering any type of paid maternity but would I still be eligible to keep my insurance benefits? I'll plan to eventually ask my HR office but I want to wait until I'm about 15-20 weeks before I mention anything to them.

[MPMD]

are you an attending?

in my experience sometimes you have special eligibility as a doc that other employees don't have.

[dermres120]

Yes I just became an attending (first year out). I started my job on September 1st and found out I was pregnant on September 14th.

 

If it matters, I work for a non-profit.

[nephron]

You only get special benefits as a physician if you are in a different corporate entity then the rest of the employees (ie university physicians group vs university employee ).   I don't think that big employers can't treat physicians one way and their secretaries another way if they are all employed under the same entity, I think that they have to treat all employees the same under the same set of rules.   You should talk to the HR dept if they have one to determine what the maternity leave policy is.   Some employers are more generous the fmla.   My wife became pregnant a few months before she started as an attending but the physician group agreed to pay her attending salary while she was on maternity leave.   You probably will be covered by their benefits, it will just be an extended leave.   Sometimes, there is clause in your contract that states how long you can stop working before they will fire you.   No one is going to fire you while you are pregnant/just given birth and that's really the only reason that you would lose your benefits, if you were no longer an employee.

[StarTrekDoc]

really depends on the way they structure the job.  Univ California has faculty and nonfaculty folk -- both with very different leave policies.  The only true way to know is to query the HR department.  And ask several different people too.  being a nonprofit, it actually maybe online too so check that out.

Worst case scenario:  PTO to whatever leave accrued -- you're on paycheck #1 still.   then leave without pay status which more often than not results in suspension of benefits unless you pay Cobra during that time.  The good thing is you'll be 9 months into the job and if have a more lenient boss with a more vague leave policy, can color around the lines a little (like extended paid leave and continued insurance benefits).

[dermres120]

There isn't a separate physician group. We're all employed under the same entity so I doubt there will be any special treatment of physicians.

I'm pretty sure they do not offered paid maternity leave and I'm not terribly worried about that. We can definitely save up prior to that and since it's our first year out, we're trying to keep our costs down (i.e live like a resident) anyway. My biggest worry would be that I would lose my health insurance soon after I go on leave, essentially right before I deliver, and then the delivery would not be covered by insurance. I'll definitely need to talk to HR but wanted to see if anyone had any experience with this but I'm guessing it's very much individual situation/company specific.

[Lordosis]

This happened to my wife when I was a resident.  She started a new job and we had our first child within the first year.  There was no paid leave either way but job and benefits were safe if you were employed for more then 6 months.  Not sure if this was a rule of the hospital system or a state thing.  We were in PA at the time.  Fortunately we had my insurance as well if there was a problem.  Does your spouse have the ability to get a family plan insurance?

[dermres120]

Yes my spouse should be able to get a family plan though his employer. The only issue is that his insurance is not as good as mine, plus I'm assuming that in that case the deductible would reset since I would change plans.

Another reason I was trying to find out early is because if I would need to change to my spouse's plan, I may as well switch to his plan from the beginning of the year so I do not need to wait until I leave my job and then lose my insurance benefits.

I'm planning to reach out to HR in about 4-6 weeks so I guess that will be the best option for me to get information.

[DCdoc]

I can’t imagibe them cutting your health insurance because of pregnancy in any scenario.

[q-school]

It was actually better than FMLA for the physicians I managed in that situation.  They just got paid time off in our non profit.

[MPMD]

dermres120 wrote:

There isn’t a separate physician group. We’re all employed under the same entity so I doubt there will be any special treatment of physicians.

I’m pretty sure they do not offered paid maternity leave and I’m not terribly worried about that. We can definitely save up prior to that and since it’s our first year out, we’re trying to keep our costs down (i.e live like a resident) anyway. My biggest worry would be that I would lose my health insurance soon after I go on leave, essentially right before I deliver, and then the delivery would not be covered by insurance. I’ll definitely need to talk to HR but wanted to see if anyone had any experience with this but I’m guessing it’s very much individual situation/company specific.

Click to expand...

Yeah you just need to pick up the phone.

I would say it is very frequent for the rules for attendings to be different than what's on the benes website.