Long Term Disability

It's against the law to ask questions about anything other than are you able to perform the job that you are applying for. I don't see how it would be a problem. You had operations, you went on LTD because you were disabled, you got better but could no longer travel so you are seeking a job that doesn't require the traveling. They don't need to know any of it. These days all employers usually do is tell others how long you worked for them and in what position. They wouldn't want to be sued by you for divulging private medical information. But there are no guarantees it won't come out. Everyone doesn't always follow the rules.

It is actually false that employers can't say more. Trust me i know I am in a law suit right now and have been for 3 years. I know a lot about what they can ask a former employer.

They can't ask you certain questions in the interview. They can ask your employer why you were let go, ask if they would hire you back and when you worked there.

Long-Term Disability though might have different rules since that falls into discrimination policy and that is a no no.

The good thing for you since you are on LTD and not separated/terminated from your current position is that you will not have to reflect a "gap" in your resume /work history.

I was medically separated, and was ill for a full year, thus I had to explain the gap during interviews, but only if they asked about the gap. I just simply said "I became very ill". My current employer (the one who hired me) only asked "are you OK now?" I eventually told him what happened to me after 3 months of employment...

Well that's the thing - there is no gap in my resume but the last year I have been on LTD and I think my employee status is "inactive." So, the question is, will a prospective future employee know that the last year I was inactive or even moreso will they know that I was on LTD? Will I need to explain it or can I just not mention it and hope nothing comes up? I just don't know if Long Term Disability is something that companies share about their employees if they have taken it.

Does anyone know or have experience with this kind of a situation?

I think your question is one that is better answered by one that knows employment laws in your state. If you don't want to consult an employment attorney maybe you can contact the state's unemployment office and discuss it with someone that counsels people who are looking for work. In fact they might have a job lead or two for you as well. Many employers list their open positions with the state because the service is free.

I would ask the career counselor at your school. Maybe they could call your current employer and/or submit an authorized request for employment reference. In other words.... have them pretend to be an employer who is looking for a reference as if you were a prospected job candidate. Trouble is... now your current employer has now been alerted that you are looking for employment and this could potentially put your LTD in jeopardy. They could also help you craft a resume and/or give you advice on how to answer any questions of prospective employers.

I am on LTD myself and Metlife was thrilled that I was able to be "rehabilitated" enough to get a part-time job and they help supplement my paid earnings.

I would suggest you call your LTD rep and ask them about rehabilitation for employment that would meet your current work restrictions.

Maybe just ask HR at your job you have LTD. Are you on good terms with anyone?

With Obamacare, your health record becomes like a criminal record.

There is already a "gray market" that is growing more robust in trading in health records. Under the new laws, your health information will be as valuable as your financial information. Where there is value, you will find legions of people willing to sell - and pay for - your information.

I'm sure we can't even imagine the myriad ways our health information will be used against us (or to profit others) in the future.



.

PKitty, you mention in your original post that you were diagnosed with a "dreaded disease" but do not say what that disease is. If it is UC, it is potentially curable with J Pouch surgery. Since you say you are considering J Pouch surgery, I assume you mean UC.

I had UC for 20 years, and the last 3 years of those 20 were spent in law school. Despite missing significant time from school due to illness, I managed to make law review, graduate and pass all 3 bar exams I sat for. However, it got to be too much and realizing I would not be able to have a career, I had surgery after passing the bar exams.

Since the year I had surgery, 1992, I have worked continuously for 21 years as a full time trial attorney. Many trials, many important wins and losses and I am personally responsible for some really bad law on the books in Connecticut right now (due to me losing an important case in 2001 which could have been a landmark case on the trade name law in Connecticut).

During this time I never bought disability insurance and never missed extended time from work although I have battled pouchitis and inflammation in my lower ileum since 1995.

If you have UC and it cannot be treated effectively with biologics like remicade or 6MP, surgery is going to likely be your ultimate solution. If you are missing time from work as you have described you could be in even worse shape than I was in 1992. I was very close to getting toxic megacolon. When they opened me up and took the colon out, it was dissolving in my surgeon's hands, from what he later told me.

Good luck with your decision.

PBX David I think you need to review the new law and look at the laws that are already in force.

The government is not going to know any more under the new law than the old law. I don't want to argue with you or anyone else about politics on here but I also don't want to see misinformation presented either.

The new law matches up people without insurance with insurance companies so that the people without insurance can purchase insurance DIRECTLY from the insurance companies.

ON the other hand I would like to tell you that now that I am disabled and was forced on medicare by my insurance company that dropped me as soon as they could because of my pre-existing conditions. Now the governments arm, Medicare knows everything about my health care and I don't care. You know why? Because I have health insurance. Because of my multiple health problems, CTBarrister I have many more than UC an pouch problems, and received SSD for 24 months my insurance company dropped insurance coverage when I should have been able to purchase it from them for 8 more years.

Don't judge me either as I had been working for 40 years since I could lie about my age and start working at age 15 in H.S. I paid for Social Security and Medicare INSURANCE out of every paycheck and all of my self-employed income and am now collecting BENEFITS not entitlements from that insurance.

I have studied the new health care act so please do not misrepresent it here. I am sick and tired of all the lies being spread across the country about it. Frankly I can not understand why so many people are against the 40-50 million WORKING Poor and Middle class people that are not covered by health insurance being allowed to now afford the coverage. Why do people not want people like us with pre-existing health problems to finally be able to afford or even buy health insurance? Why are people so damn mean to people they don't even know?

I am passionate about this subject.

Medical records do not change in any way under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). I don't know where this nonsense comes from, but I know that honorable people won't spread it.

quote:

PKitty, you mention in your original post that you were diagnosed with a "dreaded disease" but do not say what that disease

PTKitty's profile states her disease is "UC" with no past or planned surgeries.

Sorry, but one of the positives of the new laws that has been touted is the streamlining and centralization and digitization of health records, and how this will save lives and reduce healthcare costs.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a report last year warning that the data collection element of the new laws is ripe for abuse.

For those of you who want to pick a political fight, don't. I'm just stating concerns about that element of the laws as the government has stated them. If you have issues with those assessments, then direct your ire at the Department of Health and Human Services, not me.

The question was whether our health records will be used against us. The answer is Yes, they probably will. Information technology is a two-edged sword.



.

Let's not make this a political debate! I do not want to close this thread because it goes off topic. Abuse is possible in any system, so let's not get into conspiracy theories. NOBODY here can assure ANY of us that any particular provision of the ACA will or will not cause great help or harm. That will be found out in time. The only certainty is that people who could not get decent insurance before will now be able to.

There was no question about whether health records would be used against us. The question was about what future employers can ask prior employers about. Employers do not have access to health records, digital or otherwise.

Please, let's focus on the topic at hand (long term disability).

By the way, the original poster was first diagnosed with UC, but has since been diagnosed with Crohn's, which is not cured by colectomy.

Jan

My husband owns his own business. Whenever he gets a call about a former employee he only answers a question with a yes or a no or I don't know. He never elaborates.

And thank you Jan for the reminder. I'm sick of all this political crap popping up at every turn. Obviously I'm not talking solely about this site. It's everywhere. I need a break from it! UGH!

Thanks Jan! Yeah, it was getting off topic. As for my disease - I had been originally diagnosed with UC. Everything pointed to and still points to UC except for the finding of a 2 granulomas in my last colonscopy. One GI told me that a granuloma basically means Crohns. I went to see a further IBD expert and international respected for his work in IBD and he said that with my presentation and only 2 granulomas, he would still call this UC. So, I am not really sure what I have. My surgeon said that I probably have something in between and not full UC and not full Crohns. He said he would still do a Jpouch on me. Basically, it is a very confusing situation.

But - my main worry at the moment is about what my future employer will think of the fact that I am on LTD or if they will ever even know. I think some people had good suggestions on here like asking the HR of my company or asking my school to do an employee reference to see what happens. Any other ideas? I wonder if I can call my own company anonymously and ask for an employee verification and see if they disclose that I was on Long Term Disability?

Keeping with the original post....

quote:

My question is - will my future prospective employers that I interview with know that I was on long term disability leave?

Nooooo. Why would you think corporate America would do something unethical like snoop into prospective employees private medical information? Put it right out of your mind. The fact that doing so might save corporate America billions of dollars doesn't mean anything. There is nothing to worry about. Everything is fiiiiiine. Really.

quote:

Or will my current company keep that information private?

I wouldn't be worried about your current employer revealing information about your medical condition... I would be more concerned with hackers and information peddlers like Julian Essange making your records available to anybody who is willing to pay for it, once that information is digitized and centralized in a digital repository.

Despite the attempts of several people to FORCE this into a political issue, it isn't a political issue. It is a reality of technology being vulnerable to hackers and those who don't lose sleep about breaking HIPPA laws.



.

I am just on long term disability, so it is like a leave from company...I get no pay. My insurance rejected me for long term disability payment because they said I am not hospitalized and therefore I can go to work...can you believe that? I probably should appeal.

My current condition is 8-10 bowel movements a day with urgency, cramping,blood, pain, fatigue etc. My work requires 100% travel - it would be almost impossible to go to work full time in my condition.

Pkitty,

I would think that most reasonable folks would consider their definition of disabled to be an itsy bitsy teeny weeny bit narrower than is reasonable.



.

If you appeal the long term disability decision:

The key to SSDI may also work with private carriers, and it is this: Don't prove you are sick, describe how your illness effects your ability to work.

They will pretty quickly - through medical records - establish that you are sick. People make the mistake of assuming that establishing that clears the way to disability. It doesn't. Lots of people with J-Pouches and pouchitis with complications are still able to work, so the mere presence of those conditions doesn't necessarily equal disability.

You have to graphically describe, in detail, how your condition interferes with your ability to work. Things like losing sleep lead to being tired, unable to concentrate, irritability, etc. etc. Pain causes constant interruptions in your thought process, etc. BE brutally honest. Never exaggerate - they can smell that a mile away - but don't leave out any small way your medications & conditions efect your ability to work.

Now, you may have already done that and still lost because your insurance company is a bad egg, but if not, you will want to make sure your appeal is centered on that aspect.

Insurance carriers already have the ability to revisit a decision if they think medical treatments have advanced and created a "cure" for your condition, so no "long term" decision is permanent. You'll have to go through it all again every so often.

Good luck.



.

Here is my LTD story:

1. Started new job January 2012 and Selected LTD @ 60% of my pay during open enrollment
2. Started paying premiums March 2012
3. Started Chronic Proctitis flare end of March 2012
4. Totally sick in bed by May 2012
5. Colon removed June 2012.
6. Filed LTD claim August 2012
7. LTD had to go through all of my doctors and medical records for the previous 2 years to determine if I had been “treated” for my Chronic Proctitis.
8. Took them 4 months to determine I was eligible to receive benefits.
9. Paid me 4 months retro benefits.
10. Immediately cut-off my benefits claiming they had no new medical records/info that I remained disabled.
11. I appealed their decision with my new doctor info and plan to go through with the J-Pouch surgery and that my surgeon required 6-months “healing” time between surgeries. I was not sitting around “waiting” for my next surgery (as they tried to claim). I was “healing” as my doctor required.


Thank God I did not have a “flare and treated for such flare” for the 2 years prior to my getting really sick. If I had been treated, it would have been considered pre-existing.

Were you treated/received medical care for UC at ALL during the 2 years prior to your becoming disabled? I only paid about 2 premiums into LTD before I filed an actual claim, but maybe you had your plan longer (at least 2 years) and the rules may be different for you.

Guys let me give you all some free legal advice, which I also gave to another member here who started posting about his divorce on this board.

If you have a legal claim or legal case pending do not make statements about it in this thread, on this board or to anyone other than your attorney. Although we are theoretically posting anonymously, the statements you make on an Internet board are traceable and discoverable.

I have seen Facebook and other Internet postings become evidence in legal cases and they could possibly be used against you. While I understand the need to get things off of one's chest, at the same time you are possibly creating a record of something you can be asked about in the future. Is it unlikely, yes, but I have seen it happen that statements were made in these circumstances and then were used in legal proceedings. If you are ever deposed by a good attorney he or she will ask if you ever made statements about your case to anyone or in any media and if you say no and this is then sprung on you, it then becomes a credibility issue for you, and it starts to get easier to make you look like a liar and stretcher of the truth.

People who work for MetLife read the Internet just like employees of other insurance companies. My client insurance companies even read the case details on my own cases that are on the State's Judicial Website and ask me about them. This board is a public forum, it is not a private club.

Pkitty, if you post on Facebook or any other social networks or websites that you have a disease or any health issues and are on LTD it is fair game for the company hiring you and trust me they all check the social websites. I had severe UC and now I have a J Pouch and am loving life again. A life on LTD or a J Pouch is an easy decision for me.

Thanks for the free legal advice CT, but I am not trying to hide anything from LTD, I have already won my appeal(without the need for an attorney), as it was the right and legal thing for LTD to continue my disability payments. All of which I am sure is well-documented in my file.

I also did the right and legal thing by informing my LTD carrier that I obtained part-time employment when I was able to start actively looking for work regardless of my ongoing medical conditions. I am getting better every day, but I still have debilitating digestion issues as well as an upcoming incisional hernia operation (again the doctor wanted to wait 6 months for me to heal). All of which I and my doctors continue to communicate to my LTD. At least I am not just "sitting around waiting for my next surgery".

LTD at one point wanted to discuss voc rehab with me and I asked them "to do what? My profession is already sedentary work". They agreed that there was not much they could do for me. Eventually, they did not need to do anything, as I was quite capable of obtaining at least partial employment to match my partial disability.

Back to the original Poster,

Regardless of what your new prospective employer knows, or is told, or discovers about your previous employment -you will still need to proceed with the interview process and all of the other topics that will need to be discussed. I would advise, clear your head of all that can't be controlled, concentrate on what you need to do in the interview to get the job. Reply to what you are asked on the LTD subject with the least amount of information you can get away with while still being truthful. In all likelihood you will sail through the process with flying colors and no questions asked about your previous LTD.

All the best,

MK