My girlfriend and I recently gave birth to an amazing and wonderful baby girl. During my girlfriend's pregnancy, we were experiencing zero problems, zero issues, our infant was "textbook healthy" according to the doctors who performed the 3D sonograms and our Ob/Gyn. With a completely healthy child, we decided to have the child naturally with a local state certified Midwife.
So to ensure that things would run smoothly we spoke with our Aflac representative who assured us that things would be fine. We would be forfitting a lump sum payment they would provide us to help pay for hospital expenses, but we were okay with that because having an out-of-hospital birth with Renee (our midwife) would still be significantly cheaper than a hospital birth. We were also told that we would still qualify for up to 6 months total of disability coverage to not only spend time with our baby but to also recover from giving birth at full salary (~$1300 a month).
So our baby was born and now we are seeing ALL of the loop holes come out of the woodwork. Our representative was even surprised. We got on multiple 3 way calls with me, the representative, and the corporate office to discuss what was happening. First, the paperwork we sent in the the midwife's signature is not adequate enough. According to Aflac's corporate member, a midwife needs a physician to sign a statement backing her reasoning for putting my girlfriend out on disability. According to Renee, a state certified midwife can legally put any woman out on disability for no reason so long as it is one month prior to the due date and that it is illegal for Aflac to not accept her signature. By my understanding, we were then informed that Aflac only covers actual medical conditions and that they do not recognize being 8 months pregnant and working at a Tutor Time where you are required to lift toddlers over 25 times a day as a reason to go on disabililty. My girlfriend was experiencing massive swelling in her legs, feet, and ankles and we had to go see a chiropractor numerous times a week for adjustments to her hips.
My biggest complaint is that the state of California accepted the same information we provided Aflac and paid us disibility. Aflac should not have given us as much trouble as they did if the state of california didn't. In the end, we only got around $650 compensation to cover 6 weeks postpartum. Being a member for over a year and a half, we expected to be taken better care of. We exptected to get a full salary, not partial, and we exptected to be covered from the time disability started to (at least) the 6 week point, if not longer.
I am no legal expert, but it is not difficult see that we were just another couple screwed by an insurance company's fine print.
Aflac Reviews
My girlfriend and I recently gave birth to an amazing and wonderful baby girl. During my girlfriend's pregnancy, we were experiencing zero problems, zero issues, our infant was "textbook healthy" according to the doctors who performed the 3D sonograms and our Ob/Gyn. With a completely healthy child, we decided to have the child naturally with a local state certified Midwife.
So to ensure that things would run smoothly we spoke with our Aflac representative who assured us that things would be fine. We would be forfitting a lump sum payment they would provide us to help pay for hospital expenses, but we were okay with that because having an out-of-hospital birth with Renee (our midwife) would still be significantly cheaper than a hospital birth. We were also told that we would still qualify for up to 6 months total of disability coverage to not only spend time with our baby but to also recover from giving birth at full salary (~$1300 a month).
So our baby was born and now we are seeing ALL of the loop holes come out of the woodwork. Our representative was even surprised. We got on multiple 3 way calls with me, the representative, and the corporate office to discuss what was happening. First, the paperwork we sent in the the midwife's signature is not adequate enough. According to Aflac's corporate member, a midwife needs a physician to sign a statement backing her reasoning for putting my girlfriend out on disability. According to Renee, a state certified midwife can legally put any woman out on disability for no reason so long as it is one month prior to the due date and that it is illegal for Aflac to not accept her signature. By my understanding, we were then informed that Aflac only covers actual medical conditions and that they do not recognize being 8 months pregnant and working at a Tutor Time where you are required to lift toddlers over 25 times a day as a reason to go on disabililty. My girlfriend was experiencing massive swelling in her legs, feet, and ankles and we had to go see a chiropractor numerous times a week for adjustments to her hips.
My biggest complaint is that the state of California accepted the same information we provided Aflac and paid us disibility. Aflac should not have given us as much trouble as they did if the state of california didn't. In the end, we only got around $650 compensation to cover 6 weeks postpartum. Being a member for over a year and a half, we expected to be taken better care of. We exptected to get a full salary, not partial, and we exptected to be covered from the time disability started to (at least) the 6 week point, if not longer.
I am no legal expert, but it is not difficult see that we were just another couple screwed by an insurance company's fine print.