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October 10, 2024

How much time off is enough? Patients rely on your expertise

The FAMLI Division trusts the expertise of licensed health care providers to make appropriate recommendations for their patients to take time off from work. And your patients trust you to help them get the time they need to recover without unnecessarily exhausting their banks of paid time off.

When recommending time off, keep these two questions top of mind:

• How much time off would you typically recommend for this condition?
• What is the standard recommendation for time off for this condition?

Don’t feel obligated to recommend longer durations of time away from work than needed for recovery. Remember that FAMLI leave is limited, so using it up could hurt your patient if an emergency arises later in their benefit year.

Demystifying FAMLI extensions for pregnancy and childbirth complications

We get a lot of questions about pregnancy and childbirth complications, which can trigger up to four additional weeks of FAMLI benefits for birthing parents.

As a licensed health care provider, you can provide the answers your patients and the FAMLI Division need. 

The Serious Health Condition Form asks if this is related to a pregnancy or childbirth complication. If you check yes on this question, it is imperative that you provide information regarding the serious health condition caused by the complication(s). 

Checking this box without a description of the serious health condition will delay the time it takes to process the claim. 

Routine pregnancies, childbirth, and C-sections are not automatically eligible for extended FAMLI benefits. The FAMLI Division needs more information about the serious health condition caused by the pregnancy or childbirth complication. 

Ask these questions before certifying a pregnancy complication:

• Is the patient experiencing a complication related to the pregnancy or childbirth that caused a serious health condition? 
• Did the patient experience a pregnancy loss that caused a serious health condition?
• Does this serious health condition warrant more time off than a typical pregnancy or routine childbirth or C-section?

As a licensed health care provider, you should be able to answer yes to these questions before certifying leave for pregnancy or childbirth complications. 

Extra time off for pregnancy or childbirth complications applies only to the birthing parent’s health and recovery. Unfortunately, extra time off does not apply if the baby experiences a serious health condition or feeding issues. Fathers and non-birthing parents are not eligible. 

Tell Your Patients about FAMLI 

After-visit summaries are super important for health care providers. They let patients know their next steps and give them crucial information about their health.

Now you can make those summaries even more valuable by letting your patients know about paid family and medical leave in Colorado. We encourage you to copy-and-paste the message below into your after-visit summaries: 

Did you know that nearly all workers in Colorado now qualify for paid leave to take care of themselves or a loved one with a serious health condition? Pregnancy qualifies as a serious health condition, and both parents are eligible to take up to 12 weeks to bond with a new child.  Find out more and get your claim started at famli.colorado.gov.

We also encourage you to print out our What Is FAMLI? flyers in both English and Spanish. These flyers are a great introduction to FAMLI and will point your patients in the right direction to learn more.