Alight FMLA and leave forms, explained

What is Alight, and why is its name on your leave paperwork?

Alight is a company that runs leave administration for large employers. For employers with 5,000 or more employees, it says it can "manage the entire leave of absence process." An employer can also keep some absence types in-house and send others to Alight, which Alight calls co-sourcing.

Its leave software is LeavePro, and employees use Alight Worklife.

Alight's leave-administration page lists FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) leave, including intermittent leave, along with state paid and job-protected leave, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accommodation and self-funded short-term disability.

Your paperwork can carry your employer's or plan's own name next to Alight's. One public form's footer reads "TIPP Customer Care at Alight." TIPP is the Texas Income Protection Plan, a disability plan for Texas state employees run by the Employees Retirement System of Texas, and its claims go through LeavePro.

Forms aren't the same at every employer. Work at Target? See the Target leave guide.

Who decides your leave: Alight or your employer?

Alight administers. The rules come from your employer's leave policy and benefit plan, plus the law.

Alight's public pages don't say who makes the final decision. The letters in your case show who decided and why. Keep each one, with its date.

Where do you request leave and send your forms?

That depends on your employer. Alight's LeavePro page says employees can sign in to Alight Worklife to request leave and "upload paperwork." Because an employer can keep some absence types in-house, check whose name is on each letter.

Request the leave the way your employer says.

If your employer uses Alight Worklife, that can be where you start.

Read each letter that comes back.

Look for which forms are needed and when they're due.

Get the provider's part completed.

Your own treating provider can do it, or a state-licensed provider through Certicare.

Return the form by the route your letter gives.

That may be an upload in Alight Worklife or LeavePro, or another route the letter names.

Keep a copy of what you send and every letter you receive.

What is the Attending Provider Statement?

It's a form addressed to your health care provider rather than to you. It can come in a general version and a mental-health version, and your employer or plan decides which one you get. The Texas plan's forms page, for example, lists an "Attending Physician Statement" and a "Behavioral Health Clinician Statement."

One public mental-health version is titled "Attending Provider Statement: Initial Mental Health." Its topics run from treatment dates, through how the condition affects functioning, to the return-to-work plan. Section headings include "Treatment & Statement of Incapacity," "Affect & Mood Assessment," "Behavioral Functioning-Clinician Observed" and "Return to Work Status & Plan."

The provider fills in that part, not you. For more on the form type, read the attending physician statement guide; for mental-health claims, see short-term disability for mental health.

Is an Alight leave the same as FMLA or short-term disability?

No. Time away, job protection and pay are separate decisions. Alight's leave page lists both FMLA and short-term disability, but each runs on its own rules.

FMLA leave is unpaid, and paid leave can run alongside it. Short-term disability is pay under a plan, a separate decision, and the same weeks can count against both. The short-term disability vs FMLA guide sets the two side by side.

FMLA eligibility has three tests: 50 or more employees within 75 miles of your worksite, 12 months with the employer, and 1,250 hours in the preceding 12 months. Meeting them is necessary, not sufficient. The reason must also qualify, and your employer designates the leave; what counts as a serious health condition is its own question.

What happens if the provider's form comes back incomplete or late?

For an FMLA certification, you get at least 15 calendar days after the employer's request to return it. If it's incomplete or insufficient, the employer must say in writing what's missing and generally allow seven calendar days to fix it.

If the certification is late, the rule depends on the leave. For leave you planned ahead, the employer may deny FMLA coverage until you provide it. For leave you couldn't plan, it may deny FMLA coverage for that leave, unless something outside your control, like a medical emergency, made returning it on time impractical. Read about FMLA denials for what can still be fixed.

The federal rule lists what an FMLA certification needs: when the condition started, how long it's likely to last, the medical facts supporting the leave, and whether you can do the job's essential functions. A diagnosis isn't required on it.

Disability-plan forms, like an Attending Provider Statement for short-term disability, follow the plan's rules, not the FMLA's clocks. The deadline for your claim is in your letter.

Who completes the provider's part for you?

If the provider already treating you will complete the form, that's the simplest route. Certicare is for when that isn't available, or not in time.

A state-licensed provider completes and signs the provider's part of the form you were sent, after an online evaluation, where the evaluation supports it. Upload the form with your intake; usually no appointment. A provider may follow up for more detail before deciding.

An evaluation doesn't mean a signature: the provider signs only what the evaluation supports. The completed form comes back to you by email, usually within 24 hours after we have everything needed. You return it the way your letter says.

The fee is $49 for the medical leave forms service. If we can't complete your request, for any reason, you're refunded in full.

This service is for your own condition. For a family member, see family care leave forms.