Family Member Disability

1. Notify your leader of your intent to take a leave.

2. Call The Hartford at 1-888-924-4155 or log in/create an account at MyBenefits.TheHartford.com to submit your request for a leave. You must call 30 days in advance of the leave, if possible. If the leave is unexpected, you must call the day you learn of the need for leave or the following business day.

3. Complete this application for New Jersey Family Leave Insurance (NJFLI) and submit it to: Division of Temporary Disability & Family Leave
Insurance, P.O. Box 387, Trenton, NJ 08625-0387, or via fax at 1-609-984-4138.

IMPORTANT: The Hartford does not handle the payment portion for the NJ Family Leave Act. You will receive payment directly from the State of New Jersey, so you must complete this step. This will take approximately three to six weeks to process, so be sure to submit your application as early as possible. Any questions about the payment should be directed to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Family Leave Insurance at 1-609-292-7060.

Leave of Absence - The Hartford

• 1-888-924-4155
• Visit Website
• HMH Policy Number: GRH – 402125

Leave of Absence - LOA Accommodations Team

• HMHRTW@hmhn.org
• Email or fax at 1-848-245-8453 to process your return to work
  
  

Leave of Absence - Team Member Service Center

• 1-551-996-2877
• Open an HR inquiry via the Team Member Service Center tile in MyWay.

When medically necessary, a team member with a serious health condition may take leave on an intermittent or reduced work schedule basis.

An intermittent leave is taken in separate blocks of time due to a single illness or injury, and may include leave periods from an hour or more to several weeks.

A reduced schedule leave reduces an eligible team member’s usual number of working hours per workweek, or hours per workday.

If a team member takes a leave intermittently or on a reduced work schedule basis in order to obtain planned medical treatment, the team member must, when requested, attempt to schedule the leave so as not to unduly disrupt HMH’s operations.

• Notify your leader of your intent to take a leave.
• To apply for intermittent leave, please call The Hartford at 1-888-924-4155 or log in/create an account at MyBenefits.TheHartford.com to open a claim. Please note: Team members must call The Hartford each day they plan to take a leave, in order to receive payment.
• Team members taking an approved intermittent leave for their own health condition or during pregnancy will draw from their ESL for each intermittent leave day taken. If/when ESL is exhausted, team members are permitted to draw from their PTO — drawing first from PTO FT Status Bank (if available) and then PTO True Balance (not to go below 80 hours), then PTO Drawdown Bank.

It is very important to follow these steps when returning to work to avoid delays in your pay and system access. 

1. Email the LOA Accommodations team at HMHRTW@hmhn.org or fax 1-848-245-8453 to notify them of your return to work date and provide a contact number. The LOA Accommodations team will then update your status in MyWay-PeopleSoft and confirm your return to work date with your leader. Please note: Failure to submit this information to the LOA Accommodations team as far in advance of your planned return as possible could result in a delay in pay and system access.

2. Call The Hartford at 1-888-924-4155 or log in/create an account at MyBenefits.TheHartford.com to report your return to work date.

3. Call your leader to coordinate your return to work.

You will continue to accrue Paid Time Off (PTO), Earned Sick Leave (ESL) and Holiday time if you are in a benefit-eligible status for 30 days. After 30 days, your accruals will stop and will resume when you return from your LOA.

Medical, Family, Intermittent, Domestic Violence, and Military leaves are all handled by The Hartford and should be reported to them through the proper channels. Jury Duty and Bereavement are handled in-house by your leader.

• If the team member is eligible for Short Term Disability (STD), it will begin once the team member has exhausted their ESL.
• Temporary disability benefits are paid up to a maximum of 26 weeks as required by NJ state law and are administered by The Hartford. This payment will be sent to the team member directly from The Hartford. Team members should ask for the “Statutory Claim Payment" when they call The Hartford about the payment.
• For team members with salaries above the maximum NJ weekly benefit amount of $903 (effective 1/1/21), HMH will provide an additional benefit that will bring the payment to a full 2/3 of their base weekly salary. This amount can be supplemented to a full 100% with time from the team member's PTO True Balance and PTO Drawdown Bank, as available. Payment is made through Payroll on a biweekly basis.

• Long Term Disability (LTD) is a benefit that HMH provides to eligible team members. The LTD Plan is designed to replace a portion of your income should you remain disabled after exhausting the 26 weeks of Short Term Disability. These benefits are administered by The Hartford.
• Eligible team members have the opportunity to purchase additional LTD coverage as a buy-up option during the annual Open Enrollment period or within 31 days of the date a team member has a change in family status.
• Evidence of Insurability is required for team members who do not enroll within 31 days after first becoming eligible for the buy-up option.

If you need to change leave dates, you should first notify your leader and then The Hartford.

As long as you are receiving a paycheck from HMH, your medical deductions will be taken out of your paycheck. Once you are no longer receiving a paycheck from HMH, you will be billed for your medical deductions directly by Baker Tilly.

Long Term Disability is simply a different insurance plan. As long as you are on an approved leave, there should be no change to your benefits, employee status, etc.

Because HMH’s PTO policy is more generous than and exceeds what is required by law – allowing team members to accrue more hours than required – it is HMH’s policy, under certain circumstances, for team members to draw from their PTO balance, if available, before drawing from their ESL bank. NJ state law protects team members’ ability to take time off under certain circumstances, without penalty. It does not, however, necessarily require the employer to designate that time as “ESL time.” The employer is not required to provide additional time designated for earned sick leave if PTO days may be used for earned sick leave and the employer’s PTO policy meets all requirements of the law.