Private Short Term Disability Insurance???

[plantationcatt]

Well...we''re wanting to try to start a family in the next couple months....and I missed the September cutoff for open enrollment at work for short term disability insurance... Does anyone out there have any advice or experience with private short term?

Though it may take until at least September to get pregnant, they won''t take you if you''re already pregnant, and well...it''s better to be prepared, right?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

PC, I don''t have experience. Have you tried Googling it? I imagine it''s going to be quite costly. Is there any reason why you wouldn''t want to wait until next year''s open enrollment? Well, other than wanting a baby that is?

 

[cnspotts]

We just had our open enrollment and this is now an option paid for by us at $12 month. This is the only time that they''ll be accepting pre-existing conditioins as well such as preg. Previously this was paid for by our company but as many are seeing things are changing. I declined it because I don''t see it''s value for us in our situation. If I get hurt at work then it''s workman''s comp, if I get hurt, sick otherwise then we can live on one income for awhile.

 

[MustangGal]

It may be possible to apply through the EOI (Evidence of Insurability) option if your plan allows it. You would most likely be subject to a pre-existing condition clause going that way, but as long as you''re not pregnant at the time you apply (and don''t have other health issues) you should get approved. Ask your HR if there is a way to apply outside of Open Enrollment.

If you do have to look at private insurance, calculate what the total premiums would be compared to the amount you would be paid out for a maternity claim. The standard STD policy will pay 6 weeks for vaginal delivery and 8 weeks for c-section. If you think you might be high-risk, they would also cover bed-rest.


I process the disability claims for my company

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[Hudson_Hawk]

MG can you please clarify something for me? My STD doesn''t kick in until the 31st day of being out of work. Is it 6/8 weeks from that time or 6/8 weeks from the time of delivery?

 

[MustangGal]

6/8 weeks from the delivery date. So you wouldn''t get much from your company plan then. I haven''t seen one with a 31 day waiting period, that''s pretty long! You should check with HR to be sure, but it''s normally how long you are medically unable to work, which is the 6/8 weeks. After that it''s more of a bonding with the baby issue to keep you off work, not a medical limitation.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Really that''s long? Every STD plan I''ve ever been on has started on the 31st day....

 

[MustangGal]

My last company was 14th day, and my current company is 7th day if just illness, day 1 if hospitalized/injury. It was nice to get all 8 weeks of STD pay after my c-section!

Try to "save" your PTO/vacation time. A lot of women use it all up for appointments and such, but if you''re frugal during the prgnancy, you''ll have more to fill in the gap when the baby comes.

 

[plantationcatt]

Hudson, I did google...and didn''t get much more than bad advertisements. Yeah, there''s no reason not to wait until open enrollment except the whole wanting to try now thing, hahah.

cnspotts, we currently get a $50/week benefit that the premiums are paid by our employer. Any other short-term is on us...and the open enrollment is in September. I would sign up for it only for the time off during pregnancy if it would be worth my premiums for that short time.

MustangGal, you are a wealth of information! I''ll call HR back and ask about the EOI. I called yesterday and asked about getting short term disability and she told me that I had missed open enrollment...and though I seemed dismayed, she didn''t offer any other options. It''s all about knowing what to ask for, right? I''m also in a position where I don''t want to arouse any suspicions quite yet about wanting to get prenant. I''m the only woman in my department and though I''m sure things will be fine once I announce a pregnancy, the less I share beforehand the better. It''s too bad that I have no female co-workers to ask about their experiences at work...hm...I''m tempted to start anonymously calling around to other departments with women and pretending to be a third party survey

For private insurance, is there a particular company or two you recommend? And where could I find some quotes? Should I try calling the insurance company with whom I have my home and car insured and ask them? How does this relate to my unpaid FMLA or does it? Thank you, thank you for dealing with my barrage of questions.

Glad I asked, and was not the only one to benefit from the answers!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Date: 12/11/2009 11:16:35 AM
Author: MustangGal
My last company was 14th day, and my current company is 7th day if just illness, day 1 if hospitalized/injury. It was nice to get all 8 weeks of STD pay after my c-section!


Try to ''save'' your PTO/vacation time. A lot of women use it all up for appointments and such, but if you''re frugal during the prgnancy, you''ll have more to fill in the gap when the baby comes.

That''s what I plan to do. My company has a VERY generous ST policy (which probably explains the STD thing). You get 6 days of sick time for every year of service up to a max of 30 days. So after 4 years you have 30 days of sick available.

 

[MustangGal]

Depending on how long the HR person has been with the company, they may not know about EOI (or your plan just might not allow it). You *should* be able to ask HR about pregnany concerns without them spilling the beans to your department. I know I answer a lot of "what if" questions for employees, and would rather that women ask ahead of time and be completely informed than getting upset later when it''s too late to do anything about it.

I honestly don''t know anything about private STD insurance, so I would just stick to companies that you''ve heard the name of before. My current group plan is through Cigna, and my last one was Fort Dearborn Life (don''t know if either offer individual plans though).

And STD has nothing to do with FMLA, FMLA just protects your job for 12 weeks, STD could potentially pay longer or shorter than that time frame. We like to call STD "paycheck insurance"

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It''s nice to be able to help out other PSrs!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

MG, what''s EOI?

 

[MustangGal]

Evidence of Insurability. It''s the process you normally have to go through to apply for disability insurance outside of Open Enrollment or your initial enrollment window. It''s usually a 1-2 page form that asks a few health questions. They want to make sure you''re worth insuring

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[AllieLuv83]

I heard some ladies getting their STD from Aflac I signed up with my work and it is a private STD insurance but we got a group rate by going through the company. I have a 7 day waiting period and they will pay for 6 weeks with a vaginal and 8 weeks with a c-section.

So it all boils down to really being 5 weeks with vaginal and 7 weeks with C since there is a 7 day wait.

I do have to also exhaust all of my sick leave time and personal time from my job when I go out on maternity.