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Sister broke her ankle, trouble ensues
adventfalls
Why would you wish to know?Registered User regular
Why would you wish to know?Registered User regular
Okay, I'm not directly involved with my sister's situation so I'm not even sure I'm in a place to give her advice/help out.
My sister broke her ankle in three places today. She was attempting to learn how to do roller-derby while barely knowing how to roller blade. She didn't know it was broken, just thought it was a sprain. So she went to the ER, and that's when she found out.
So now she's in a pretty bad situation. See, my sister is married to an officer in the US Navy and could have received care on base for a lesser cost. So she now has my step-dad and her husband furious at her, while my mother is panicking.
And if you thought eating medical bills was bad, her employer won't let her work with a cast. Never mind making the one hour commute, she works as an assistant psychologist (I THINK that's the right title, she was a technician before) for troubled teens in the penal system. Whether it's her employer hedging their best for her safety or something else, I don't know. But she could potentially be unemployed.
I guess what would be good is this - what should she do? (She lives in Virginia.)
My sister broke her ankle in three places today. She was attempting to learn how to do roller-derby while barely knowing how to roller blade. She didn't know it was broken, just thought it was a sprain. So she went to the ER, and that's when she found out.
So now she's in a pretty bad situation. See, my sister is married to an officer in the US Navy and could have received care on base for a lesser cost. So she now has my step-dad and her husband furious at her, while my mother is panicking.
And if you thought eating medical bills was bad, her employer won't let her work with a cast. Never mind making the one hour commute, she works as an assistant psychologist (I THINK that's the right title, she was a technician before) for troubled teens in the penal system. Whether it's her employer hedging their best for her safety or something else, I don't know. But she could potentially be unemployed.
I guess what would be good is this - what should she do? (She lives in Virginia.)
NintendoID: AdventFalls 3DS Code: 3454-0237-6080
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And she should really figure out exactly what Tricare plan she's under--if she's not registered for Prime she probably shouldn't be going to the base anyway. And if she is, she should figure that out so she's getting treated at the fit place.
If she's been there a year she can go on unpaid leave for her injury, but they're not required to pay her if she can't do the work safely. Lots of complicated law around that one. There's law about having to provide accommodations, but depends on whether they can really say she just can't safely work.
It sounds like she might go on unpaid leave while the ankle heals, which could be a while. Might not have to quit the job. Either way, I get her dog for a few weeks while she recovers.
Situation's still in mega ultra flux though.
Like I am honestly baffled here. Are they angry at her for medical bills or just for doing something kind of dumb? Cause this is literally a non issue money wise.
She's almost guaranteed to be on her husband's insurance, so her job's insurance plans likely don't factor in, and I'd be willing to wager that Tricare actually doesn't have disability insurance.
Although, hell, if civilian contractors and DoD civs can get Tricare, they may by now.
She will need a lawyer. And talk to her employer's HR department with her boss. Can the husbands military benefits get them a consultation with a labor law lawyer?
She has lots of rights here and may be reading too much into comments from her immediate supervisor over what her options are.
If she has worked 1250 hours or one year at a job that qualifies her for FMLA, which it sounds like she has, she should get up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave that she can come back to a job from. Even nasty nasty breaks don't take over three months to heal, generally speaking. And after a few weeks they should put her in a walking cast, which she may or may not be able to work in. I mean if she's done extreme damage to her ankle and requires surgery, that's going to mess with healing time, but otherwise she should be fine as long as she gets her FMLA worked out in terms of documenting the medical necessity and providing whatever forms her employer wants.
And as mentioned above, Tricare is actually pretty good insurance and if it was an emergency there should be no cost to her and if it wasn't the cost will be greatly reduced, and if that is still a financial burden because something totally insane happened like they ran multiple MRIs or something else completely implausible the hospital will work with them to write off some of the remaining cost and set up a payment plan for the rest.