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Serious Health Condition

Release Date: January 22, 2009

The regulations have been changed to require that the employee be:

(a.) incapacitated from work for at least 3 consecutive business days and
(b.) must also be receiving continuing treatment in order to satisfy the "serious health condition" requirement.

Continuing treatment has been redefined to require either:

(a.) one (1) in-person visit to a health care provider within the first 7 days of incapacity and a continuing regimen of treatment or (b.) two (2) in-person visits to a health care provider within 30 days of the first period of incapacity.

Serious health condition means an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves:

Any period of incapacity or treatment connected with inpatient care (i.e., an overnight stay) in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility; or
A period of incapacity requiring absence of more than three calendar days from work, school, or other regular daily activities that also involves continuing treatment by (or under the supervision of ) a health care provider; or
Any period of incapacity due to pregnancy, or for prenatal care; or
Any period of incapacity (or treatment therefor) due to a chronic serious health condition (e.g., asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.); or
A period of incapacity that is permanent or long-term due to a condition for which treatment may not be effective ( e.g., Alzheimer's, stroke, terminal disease, etc.); or
Any absences to receive multiple treatments (including any period of recovery that follows) by, or on referral by, a health care provider for a condition that likely would result in incapacity of more than three consecutive days if left untreated (e.g., chemotherapy, physical therapy, dialysis, etc.).

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