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Recurrent Disabilities
A recurrent disability occurs if you return to work after being on an approved short-term disability leave and go out again within 60 days due to the same or a related medical or behavioral health condition. If you experience a recurrent disability, you must contact Sedgwick to apply for and re-open your prior short-term disability claim, and you will be required to provide the appropriate medical or behavioral health documentation from your treating provider within 30 calendar days. If approved by Sedgwick, you will not have to complete another one-week wait period and your subsequent short-term disability will be considered a continuation of your original short-term disability. The subsequent weeks of short-term disability will count toward the maximum leave duration for which you are eligible, i.e., 26 weeks. If you are eligible for non-occupational short-term disability pay, your benefits will resume at the appropriate rate, i.e., 100% or 60% of pay, based on your length of service as of the beginning of your original approved short-term disability leave, up to the maximum of 25 weeks. For example:
  • Assume you are a full-time employee with eight years of recognized service. According to the "Short-Term Disability Pay Schedule", in a calendar year you would be eligible for up to 13 weeks of disability pay at 100% of pay and up to 12 weeks of disability pay at 60% of pay. Assume your short-term disability leave is approved from February 8 through April 25 (for 11 weeks). During your first week of leave, you would be required to use available sick time or other available paid time to cover the one-week wait period for short-term disability pay. You would then receive 100% of your pay for the next 10 weeks until your return to work on April 26.
  • Further assume that on June 5, you begin leave for the same health condition and your short-term disability leave is approved for an additional four weeks (i.e., June 5 through July 3). Since this leave is a continuation of your prior leave, you do not need to complete another one-week wait period. Your total short-term disability leave time is 15 weeks (11 weeks from the prior leave, plus four more as a continuation of that leave). Since you previously received 10 weeks of short-term disability pay at 100% of pay, you would be entitled to receive three additional weeks at 100% of pay, according to the schedule. Your fourth (and final) week of leave would be at 60% of pay.
Please Note: Should you continue to be disabled longer than 26 weeks for the recurring disability, you may be eligible for long-term disability benefits if you had JPMorgan Chase-provided LTD coverage or you elected coverage under the LTD Plan before becoming disabled and you are approved by the LTD claims administrator. You must pursue the LTD claim to its conclusion, including providing all required documentation and exhausting all required appeals, before reapplying for STD benefits related to the same disability.