Short-term disability isn’t a new benefit, but it is a valuable coverage both employees and employers need to understand to ensure they can take full advantage of its features. This Lincoln Absence Advisor podcast explores how STD is perceived, how it interacts with state PFML and company-sponsored leave, and how new trends may affect future STD program offerings.
Resources mentioned:
Podcast episode 50: First point of contact, first point of support
© 2022 Lincoln National Corporation. All rights reserved. LCN-4890164-080522
Short-term disability isn’t a new benefit, but it is a valuable coverage both employees and employers need to understand to ensure they can take full advantage of its features. This Lincoln Absence Advisor podcast explores how STD is perceived, how it interacts with state PFML and company-sponsored leave, and how new trends may affect future STD program offerings.
Resources mentioned:
Podcast episode 50: First point of contact, first point of support
© 2022 Lincoln National Corporation. All rights reserved. LCN-4890164-080522
Hi everyone, this is Karen Batson Marketing Manager at Lincoln Financial Group. In today's episode we talk about short term disability or STD. Recently we hosted a webinar entitled layers of leave. And within that webinar, we talked about different scenarios of the benefits that cover an employee while absent. And of course, STD becomes part of that scenario. With that we received a lot of questions from our audience that's really spurred this conversation. Additionally, we talk about things that were hearing things that seemed to be trends within STD. And really just try and provide you insights in the current conversation around this employee benefit. I'm joined by Emily Igrejas who's product lead for short term disability and Sarah Konecke, who's a national account executive and hears firsthand from employers their questions around absence. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Hi, ladies. Thanks for joining us today.
Emily Igrejas:Thanks for having us.
Sarah Konecke:Thanks for having us.
Karen Batson:In fact, Emily, I think one of the episodes you were first on, we talked about the value of STD. And now you're back, and we're gonna talk about some similar things. But three years later!
Emily Igrejas:I love it. Good to be back.
Karen Batson:And Sarah, welcome to your first podcast.
Sarah Konecke:Well thanks. I'm so excited to be here.
Karen Batson:So before we jump into the specific questions I have, can we introduce yourselves and how you're connected to leave in disability.
Emily Igrejas:I'm Emily, egregious Senior Product Manager here at Lincoln Financial, I've been with the company nearly 15 years and all of my time has been spent in the group benefit space, working in a variety of roles, whether it's in our claims organization, client facing roles, or where I've spent the last eight years or so which is in our product organization. And one of the products I'm currently responsible for managing is our short term disability product. So it is near and dear to me. And again, I echo excited to be here today. Talk more about it. And thanks for having me back on Karen.
Karen Batson:Well, you're my go to for STD information. So I'm glad you're here.
Emily Igrejas:Love it.
Sarah Konecke:So I'm Sarah Konecke. I'm a national account executive here at Lincoln, I am coming up on my 15 years similar to Emily, we have very similar backgrounds, I came up through our claims organization managing both from a case manager perspective moving into the manager role. I then about over six years ago moved to the service side, so managing everything from regional clients up through national. So as Emily said, products from short term and leave are very dear to our hearts. You know, this is the fun stuff. And so, you know, we really my role I help clients can navigate this landscape, everywhere from, you know, process to culture, you know, making sure that you know, their employees are getting the best experience. And even from an employer perspective,
Karen Batson:You guys are gonna have all the answers to these questions, right? Let's dive into kind of a higher level question actually came in our webinar, and I wanted to ask kind of what you think of the question and how you would answer it. So the question was, is short term disability a form of leave? And I know we're in this when we think of all the technical stuff of all the products from an absence perspective, but I thought from like an HR employer perspective, asking this question was interesting. So love to hear your your thoughts.
Emily Igrejas:Yeah, I mean, I think I love the question, too. I think it highlights quite frankly, how confusing it all is. And, you know, to Sarah's point the landscape and how complex it is. And there may be many benefits at play with any individual's absence, right, whether it's both paid and unpaid. And I think it highlights also that we sometimes try to simplify things and use just one word to cover it all, which sometimes tends to be leave. For example, I think it's very common for employers and even you know, employees, women themselves when they're having a baby to say, Oh, I'm going out on maternity leave. Yeah. But we in the business know what that really means usually is okay, I'm going out on short term disability, and I have FMLA running at the same time. And maybe I also have possibly a state mandated paid family and medical leave program. And then maybe I'll transition to a company paid parental leave, and we know all of the stuff that can be happening at once. But that's really confusing for people to sometimes wrap their heads around. So I think it sometimes gets simplified as just calling it leave. But I do think it highlights how confusing it all is and how there are so many different pieces that kind of work together and one individuals puzzle if you will, when they're when they're absent from work.
Sarah Konecke:Yeah, absolutely agree 100% It can be a challenge. And each client you know, from a cultural perspective and how they outline their policies. Emily to your point, you know, maternity sometimes clients have specific maternity policies so it kind of removes that from being like a disabling condition. You know, from a Lincoln perspective, we consider it that way. But we have to be, you know, open with the multiple different clients that we service and how the culture and how they adapt to the different, you know, types of leaves. It's also the stigma of a disability. So, you know, trying to make sure that from an employee perspective, that disability is not what in many employees minds thinks it is, it's really a benefit to them to help them in a time of need. Versus I'm true, you know, I'm disabled, I can't work and I'm missing work. So it's, you know, trying to wrap that into the all this landscape. And then obviously, kind of maneuvering through all the different pieces of unpaid, whether it's leave, whether it's a company leave, whether it's a paid leave, and then short term disability layers and things like that, but it's just, you know, it wraps into a form of leave. But being very clear, and communications from an employer perspective, I think makes it really helpful and just outlining what everything is to help navigate that employee through the through the process.
Emily Igrejas:Sarah, I love what you mentioned there with that the stigma of the word disability. I have so many thoughts on that, because, one, I totally agree. I mean, it's a gripe I sort of have being in this industry for so long. And maybe you do too, where, you know, disability, the word itself. One, I mean, especially in today's world isn't what we would maybe call a very inclusive term. And two, it sounds very severe and catastrophic. And I think it plays into, again, just people having a hard time wrapping their heads around what you know, short term disability insurance is why they might need it because people think of a disability. And I think their mind goes right to something super catastrophic, or severely disabling that, but not the very common reasons that we see. Especially short term disability claims, which are, you know, maternity, you know, pregnancy and childbirth being number one and the things like, you know, a positive. Yeah, that, you know, issues, knee issues, simple surgeries that might keep someone out of work for only a few weeks, that is a disability. But at the same time, I think people go to the extremes. And unfortunately, I think it's sometimes hurts us in the industry, where we have this hurdle we're constantly trying to overcome. And it's interesting, because every few years, this topic sort of bubbles up amongst the carriers. And we always kind of go back to like, should we rename disability insurance? I mean, think about life insurance, we're not calling it death insurance. Actually, it you know, there's been, you know, sometimes some renewed discussions even recently about, you know, are we able to maybe think about it differently and talk about it maybe in the context of income protection, and thinking about it that way. But, yeah, it's such an interesting, interesting point you made there, Sarah.
Sarah Konecke:Yeah, it definitely, you know, kind of, as we move towards more of like a holistic approach to benefits, and it's not just disability anymore, it's how does it impact when you go on disability, for all aspects of your life? And so to your point, it's more like income replacement. I've also seen, you know, different, like, temporary disability. So it's, it's not, you know, kind of changing the word, you know, to make...
Emily Igrejas:HR protection.
Sarah Konecke:Right, exactly. So it's more of this not a negative experience of, you know, missing work and things like that, versus, you know, kind of fine tuning and how at the approach of the disability term.
Emily Igrejas:Yeah, I love that.
Karen Batson:Since you've been in the industry for a while, you know, have questions changed from employers or their HR teams regarding short term disability, like what you're approached about? And what are some of those questions that are different than, say, five years ago?
Sarah Konecke:Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest question, right now, obviously, coming out of COVID is, you know, just to how we're looking at the different types of disability as well as carving out certain types of disability from a benefit perspective. You know, one thing that we always talk about is just making sure that there's consistency across that benefit offering. So I've had a lot of questions come up around enhanced maternity. And then, you know, going down the conversation on if somebody that just an employee who had, you know, a birth, but then you know, gets 100% benefit, but somebody going through cancer is gonna get a 60% benefit, and how does that look? So, you know, I see and hear a lot of the questions coming in from my clients around kind of how they're trying to enhance the disability benefit, but being able Have some of these carve outs and you know, that at the end of the day, it's it's about being consistent treating everybody equally. And then kind of navigating how to address those different types of policies. And I think that kind of goes back to the first question and, and how we have, you know, enhanced maternity is and how we kind of outline those types of policies and make them different. So that it's, you know, not going down the path of treating people inconsistently.
Karen Batson:One quick question, do you think there's added pressure to that, given how much employees talk about what benefits rights they have them? Like there's more conversation I feel how absolute tween co workers between on posting on your social what benefits your company offers? Does that add another pressure to that consistency?
Emily Igrejas:I think so. I mean, especially in the context of to Sarah's point with maternity, that is top of mind. And it's been a even a point of national discussion with some of the legislative, you know, potential changes around, you know, the question of whether there should be a federally mandated, you know, paid leave program. And so I think that definitely has heightened focus and attention right now. And I, I would say, you know, many of the employers we work with and Sarah, I'd love to hear your thoughts, but I think they absolutely recognize at a foundational level, the need and the importance of short term disability. So it's less about that. And to Sarah's point, it's more about now with I think the current environment with some of those regulatory changes, right, in the absence of a federal program, we're seeing individual states emerging and introducing these mandated state paid family and medical leave programs. So there's a heightened focus there, because there's a concerted effort to understand how short term disability works and how it coordinates with those type of programs, which they they absolutely have to offer, if they have employees in those states, and they have to react to that. And then I do think there's that heightened focus on the importance of employee benefits in general and, and how that especially in today's climate, with some of the discussions that are happening, to your point, Karen, how visible people are about putting stuff out on social media and the transparency around the type of benefits that individuals have. That also plays into employers overall strategy, right to retain and attract top talent, it's their part of their benefit strategy. So I think it's definitely top of mind. And it's, I think it's an exciting time, because there's there, I've never seen this kind of discussion at the forefront and so visible out there, even outside of those of us that are in the industry. So it's very interesting to see how some of this is going to evolve over the coming years in terms of, you know, what kind of enhancement and changes are made to the to the products, the plan designs, how it all integrates together. And that back to that overall, like retention talent strategy. And with today's current market and the labor market, it's, it's, you know, employees have some really incredible negotiating power, and that I don't think we've seen in many years, so it's an exciting time, I think for employee benefits.
Sarah Konecke:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, just recruiting the talent and keeping the talent, you know, and showcasing those benefits. I mean, that's huge. And then Emily, to your point, the state paid leaves. So many of my clients when we're having those conversations are, you know, I have these national size clients, they're all over. So to, you know, have a internal company paid leave for employees that are not in those states that offer, you know, some of those paid leave benefits and trying to again, making sure they're consistent and, you know, having more of those increase in benefits to make sure that it's kind of well rounded.
Emily Igrejas:Yeah, to your point about making sure it's equitable, right, especially for those large employees where you have employees scattered across the country in multiple states. If you just pluck one employee sitting in this state and one employee in another state, and you say, Okay, what's their, you know, income replacement level going to be if they go out, say, and have a baby and use that as the most common example? And you don't necessarily want that answer to be okay, employee A is going to get 85% of their income replaced, but employee over here b in this other state is only going to get 60%. So it it's challenging, I think, probably a challenging time for employers to have to navigate that and think about how they make those changes so that it is equitable, and that employees are having a consistent experience and they're able to get the same kind of, you know, income benefit, amount replacement, as well as duration time off from work so that you know, people have the same amount of time for the same type of event that they might be experiencing.
Karen Batson:We talked about consistency, honestly a lot on this show in all areas leave and disability, especially over the last year. When we talk about making consistency across all these benefit types, where does STD sit? What's the value it brings to that equation with everything else going on?
Emily Igrejas:Well, short term disability policies, how they're designed. And if you're talking about a fully insured product, it's important to keep in mind that we have to file these with each respective state that we that we work in sell in. And we are bound by, you know, the state requirements, and we can't be discriminating within those policies. So kind of the earlier points we've we've talked about short term disability is a good way to achieve that sort of equitable benefit across the employee population, because it doesn't stipulate that you get different benefit amounts or different duration based on whatever your condition might be. It's simply if you're unable to perform the duties of your job or occupation, and you meet all of these requirements, you're going to get the benefit. And the benefit is a certain defined amount and a certain duration, depending on you know, the condition that you're out for. So it is certainly a good avenue to explore. But back to Sarah's point, it gets complicated so quickly, because, you know, some employers, especially for certain events, you know, maternity being that that big one that they they want to make employees whole, and they might want to pay, you know, 100% for a certain period of time. And sometimes they do look to us to try to achieve that through their short term disability program. And, you know, we have to work around that because we're not going to treat certain employees and give them a different benefit in one way, to Sarah's earlier point, and then say someone's out for cancer or some other disabling condition, we really treat the disabling conditions the same across the board. So it's getting creative in terms of adding different benefits and different programs on employers have a lot of flexibility if they offer like a self funded program where it's like administrative services only. And they can have a little more flexibility in terms of their plan design and sort of stipulate that and then we're simply helping administer it on their behalf. So there are definitely a lot of options depending on what an employer might be looking to achieve.
Sarah Konecke:It is a challenge, but you know, in to kind of moving past the disability piece of it and more of like the paid leave is where too you know, you're seeing some of that more the states are rolling out, their's and then now our employers are saying, Okay, now we need to start implementing more of a company paid leave for parental and caregiver to help, you know, supplement for those that aren't in those states as well. You know, and that's where from, like a Lincoln perspective, we're managing that to help with the company paid portion as well as the state portion as so it's kind of all encompassing,
Karen Batson:it's a lot to administer. That's why we're here, right?
Sarah Konecke:That's why we're here. Yes. We love it every day.
Karen Batson:So another question I'm gonna throw in another question we got during our webinar, and I think it kind of goes back to how employees understand their STD, what happens if they go out of work? They're absent from work, and they hadn't filed for their STD, for multitude of reasons. Can they retroactively apply? And other parameters to that? Do employees know that? That sort of question for you?
Emily Igrejas:That's a great question. I think it is pretty common to see someone file a short term disability claim, say in the first week or two of them going out of work. And we certainly do encourage employees if they know ahead of time, like maternity, and if you have a planned scheduled surgery coming up to file and kind of get it in, so that it also reduces, right the amount of work that they have to do when they're finally out of work and trying to focus on their recovery. But I think the question is such a good one, Karen, because I think it highlights I always go back to this, which is our big hurdle in short term disability, which is education. And it's not just education about what short term disability is and what it's there for. But also what is the process? And how does it work? And you know, where we're working so much with employers and Sarah, I'm sure you'll have so many thoughts on this. So important, right to highlight the importance of educating even frontline supervisors and managers, because if you think about it, if somebody you know, they're really the first line of defense, because if somebody is going to go out of work, they're telling somebody, and it's a missed opportunity. If the response isn't, you're not able to work, you should be filing for short term disability, or getting your FMLA paperwork in whatever the situation is. So it's, I think we do a pretty good job of that. So I don't know how common it is that we we see late filings, if you will, but there are there are parameters and depending on the plan specifics or there are certain requirements and timeframes. So it's always encouraged people to to understand what their benefits are and and what that entails. But it definitely highlights the need to have good education and good resources for our employer partners so that they're able to share that information as soon as possible with their employees so as to also not delay delay payment for folks, if they're if they're needing to go out of work.
Sarah Konecke:Yeah, absolutely. I can't agree more education is key, especially down to the frontline. So, you know, when an employee is in need, and being able to, you know, give those frontline managers, the education, the resources to help that employee and to provide those parameters. So, you know, to Emily's point, yes, there's definitely parameters we put in place from a leave and a disability perspective, from filing in, absolutely, there's always a one off situation that we work through, but the biggest thing is that, you know, the employees are educated, you know, when they're going through that process, you know, a lot of times employees, you know, have never, ever been through a disability or a leave of absence, and need some hand holding. And so that's where to, you know, from a Lincoln perspective, you know, we tried to get as many resources, you know, documentation out there, and then be able to kind of push that down to the frontline, to make sure that the employee knows when to file how to file, getting that, that resources that that's available to them, so that they can make it as easy as possible. But education is so key, especially too, I always say, depending on the industry, there could be a manager that has one every couple of years. So making sure that internal sites and education is updated periodically to ensure that for that one manager that doesn't have employees go out very often, but it's very easy and accessible for them to get to that information to help that employee.
Emily Igrejas:So true.
Karen Batson:We actually did an episode this season on the manager's role. So listeners I'll link to that, because it goes into a little more detail into some, some best tips and best practices for you all.
Emily Igrejas:Yeah, I love that.
Karen Batson:So next question. We also receive multiple questions about stacking with STD . We've covered this a little bit. For instance, do we see companies that allow employees to take STD and then parental leave? In a maternity instance? How do we see this scenario typically come come about?
Sarah Konecke:Yeah, I mean, stacking with short term disability, you know, from a from a Lincoln perspective, and kind of how we look at the different company leaves, as well as you know, paid state leaves is what we try to look at in each state's different in what they allow from a stacking perspective. And we're saying stacking meaning, take the short term disability, then start taking all the different benefits after another benefit ends, versus running things concurrently. So really best practices that we look at from an you know, short term disability perspective, you know, any state leaves that are running concurrent, that that helps from an administration standpoint, especially to down to the employer level, because then you're not having this employee that could be out there for 26 plus weeks, you know, that you're expecting to be back working after typical maybe three month short term disability claim. So best practices, always to run things concurrently with that short term disability benefit, but I will say, you know, what, especially this, this paid leave landscape from state perspective gets challenging because each state defines what you can and cannot do. It goes back to Emily's point earlier on just the parameters around the states. And kind of, you know, how we integrate with those state benefits to make sure that it's it's very kind of, as much as possible, cut and dry. From a landscape perspective.
Emily Igrejas:Yeah, so true. And I think we also do try to advocate when a company that we're working with has their own paid parental leave program, to help with that in terms of making recommendations on best practices, because a good company paid parental benefit policy will outline a lot of how that interacts, right. So they might, they might indicate, for example, like in short term disability, there's usually a waiting period and elimination period, right. So you might have the first week that you're out on claim is unpaid. And so sometimes people will use their PTO or their vacation, but some companies will also put that in their company paid parental leave policy to say, hey, you also have the option of if you want to use one week of that to cover your unpaid short term disability elimination period. But I think there's a key distinction to where again, short term disability is focused on somebody's own disabling condition. And when we talk about maternity and childbirth, that's really the birth parents time away to recover themselves physically from giving birth. And when we talk about company paid parental leave policies, usually those are more for less about the individual, more about time away to bond with that new child. And so there is kind of a distinction there. And kind of back to your earlier question, Karen, it's common to see that short term disability upfront first, because somebody's taking that time to recover from their their child birth, and then it transitions to that bonding period or that paid parental period. But it's very complex. And that's why we help employers through it and make sure that they have thought about some of these scenarios, and that they outline it in their individual plans and policies to make sure they're accounting for the the interaction with short term disability. And to Sarah's point that the various state programs that might be at play, depending on the state specifics, and depending on their own exposure, and where they have employees.
Karen Batson:Right. Next question. With the newer PFML programs, what pays first, the PFML program or the STD benefit? And how confusing does this get for the employee? Who doesn't want to do all the paperwork? We've kind of answered part two.
Emily Igrejas:Yeah, it is confusing for them to figure out and manage without a doubt. And again, that's I think a benefit of having employers having their benefits consolidated with with one carrier when it's possible. Again, some states don't allow what we'd call a private plan option, which allows them to outsource if you will, and not go through the state but go through an insurance carrier for that type of benefit. So it sometimes can vary by state and depending on what's at play, but to your question about short term disability and like what pays first, it's very common for the statutory, whatever the mandated program is to sort of be the one up upfront to be paying the bulk of that benefit. Because on short term disability, it's very common to see what we call an offset or a reduction. So we come up with what your typical short term disability benefit is based on the policy. And then if you're receiving, say, $500, from your state benefit, that short term disability is reduced by that$500. So that's very common. But again, it can vary by state. So it all depends.
Karen Batson:And we probably should note that that's keep in mind right with their policy from an expense finance perspective at the employer level, right, where your program is built, knowing that you have an employee base in New York, or...
Emily Igrejas:yeah, and we do a lot of work. Every time a new state emerges with a program. I mean, they are keeping us on our toes and no shortage of work on our end, because we do. To your point, Karen, there's a lot of work that goes in that most people probably don't realize, but that is built into the financial assumptions of the short term disability plan that we're going to be assuming that that offset, so it does reduce our, you know, our financial liability. And at the end of the day, that also results in savings for our employers, if they're the ones who are contributing to that plan, or directly to the employees, if they're the ones who are contributing to the plan. So, absolutely top of mind for us.
Karen Batson:Sorry, go ahead.
Sarah Konecke:I was just gonna say I can't echo that enough. I mean, that I feel like it's daily that we're talking about, you know, the paid leaves in the States, and definitely keeps us on our toes and asking questions and thinking creatively to kind of how to ensure that the plans are set up to help support the state plans?
Karen Batson:What's the most typical question you get Sarah, when a new state's coming on, on board, and maybe that employer had not gone through it before, or has a bigger population in the state? If you don't have one top of mind? I know, I'm throwing you here.
Sarah Konecke:Now, I would say one, you know, kind of the filing process, obviously, every state's different. So, for example, New York, you know, we file on behalf of the employer versus like Massachusetts, where we provide the declaration of insurance. And, you know, Massachusetts will only receive that from the employer. So those are the pieces that really differ from state to state. So you know, a lot of the first questions are okay, what's the filing process? And then we start to get down to more than nitty gritty of what's the definition of a family member? And then, you know, what are the specifics? What are the parameters? What do we need to be thinking about, in comparison to our plans? But I know a lot of it another one, actually, just off the top, my head is the benefit amount? And what makes up that benefit amount? So is it Social Security wages? Is it gross wages? How many different types of wage types? I know, for Massachusetts, it is a laundry list of different types of wages that go into that benefit. So even starting to think about those things, and how do we obtain that information from the employer? Those are really kind of the questions that first pop in when the state pops out and says we're going to we're going to offer a paid leave.
Karen Batson:Next question I have on here. If an employer offers 100% of the employee's weekly wages, their STD benefit to employees still have to worry about other programs such as PFML, or accompany paid leave program,
Emily Igrejas:That's a great question, and I would say yes, they do. They can't get away with it. I would say it's not always super common to see 100% income replacement on short term disability, but you do sometimes see certain plans designs that have that. But again, when when a state emerges with a paid family and medical leave program, those are state mandated, and you don't have the option to necessarily opt out of that. And short term disability is not a replacement for paid family and medical leave. So they will need to still react to that and figure out how it would coordinate with whatever benefit plan they have in place. And for company paid leave programs. I think it depends on what the purpose of that policy is, right? So if it's something for bonding for people to have time away, when they have a baby, for example, then you have the short term disability that's covering the birth parent, right? The person who's physically giving birth, but that paid leave policy that the company comes up with is usually going to be much more inclusive than that, right? So it's not just for the birth parent, but it would be for the non birth parent, you would see foster care placement adoption included in that and those are not necessarily reasons that someone would have a short term disability claim, again, back to that being for someone's own recovery for from injury sickness, and whatnot and pregnancy. So I don't think it escapes them from having to, to think about all of the different benefits and what they might apply for. Even though that might be where your question was going and some employers are I think we get that Question where they hope that, oh, if we have a super generous short term disability program, we don't have to pay attention to this paid family medical leave program. But you do. And I think the interesting thing about paid family medical leave programs, as well as they're combining those two reasons together, right, if you think about paid family and medical leave, so you can use that program for someone's own medical condition, which would be the thing that would overlap and run concurrently with that short term disability claim. But you can also have access to these programs for a whole other host of reasons for that family leave portion, which could be bonding, could be taking care of a sick family member, whether it's your child or an elderly parent, that you're taking care of so much more expansive, and different reasons that you would use a PFML paid family medical aid program than just a traditional short term disability program.
Sarah Konecke:Yeah, I know, we've hit on this a lot. But it really goes back to education. So making sure those employees are educated on the different benefits. And the states and states where again, to Emily's point, some don't allow a private plan. So making sure that they're aware that they need to file through the state and in Lincoln really helps with that, you know, when we're having this short term disability discussion and providing the documentation, things like that, but, you know, it's so important that they're aware of what they have available to them, and ensuring that they're, they're filing for those benefits within those states.
Karen Batson:What trends are we seeing now with STD benefits, and what employers offer.
Sarah Konecke:So this kind of goes back to my earlier comment around kind of carving out different types of diagnoses. Again, like an enhanced maternity, that's where, again, kind of going down the path of making sure things are consistent you know from a disability perspective. Also trends around enhancing, whether it's the elimination period, or the waiting period. So I saw a lot of those conversations come up when COVID first started, just because you know, the impact of COVID and on the workforce and being able to give benefits to employees starting to look at do we need to shorten our elimination periods, or even our waiting periods just to ensure that our employees are getting benefits, and they're not having to wait six months for those short term disability benefits?
Emily Igrejas:Yeah, that's such a good point. There's kind of two waiting periods when we talk about short term disability, right, there's the one that is really about just having access to the coverage, which might be that longer, you know, six month period, you referenced Sarah, that someone's hired, and they might need to wait six months from before they have that coverage available to them. And what happens in the event that they become disabled during that time period, they don't have access to those benefits. And then the other side is, once you have an actual claim, there's that usual period that the elimination period in the beginning, that's usually referred to as a waiting period as well. So it can be confusing, but that's an unpaid period of time. And I think that's definitely never more present and focus, mind and awareness of what during the COVID pandemic. And if there is a silver lining of the pandemic, I think there were a few and one of them is I think the attention on employee benefits, and some more better understanding and better awareness around short term disability and the ins and outs of it, if you will. But of course, with that increased focus comes more questions, and maybe discussions about how they might enhance that. And I think, especially there's so much discussion around financial wellness. And that's top of mind for a lot of our employers, because they have many employees that are, quite frankly, living paycheck to paycheck to so to go one week without benefits when you're experiencing a disabling condition might be something that they're not willing to have an appetite for. So they might be looking to maybe enhance that and make sure that they're providing, you know, best in class benefits to their employees, and how can we partner with them to help them accomplish that?
Karen Batson:Well, speaking of kind of looking at benefits, more one of the areas in the last webinar we discussed was actually mental health. And the stat which I'm going to read, we shared was in 2021 18% of Lincoln's STD claims were due to mental health disorder. And since 2017, mental health disorders have gone up 6% What are we seeing from employers around this and what they decide when they're putting their absence strategy? The apps excuse me absence benefit strategy together?
Emily Igrejas:Yeah, there have been I think so many interesting studies and research coming out lately that very clearly is linking physical and mental health together, right? So for example, mental health conditions that have physical consequences, and then conversely, physical conditions that can worsen mental health. And again, another silver lining I would say of the pandemic is such a renewed focus and attention on mental health, because of course, these are not new conditions. Right, I think the difference now is that people are just being much more open about it, they're willing to discuss it. I think there's really been an interesting seismic shift like in our overall cultural attitudes toward mental health and well being. For example, I think we've probably all seen a lot of the stories like highly visible top athletes out there talking about this. I think even this morning, I'll admit, I saw a silly headline about some pop star canceling his world tour due to mental health. And I thought it might, you know, giggle about that a little bit. But at the same time, I think that has tremendous impact on our cultural attitudes toward that when you see people at that level, openly acknowledging it and discuss discussing it where we would not have seen that and even just five years ago, I don't think so. I do think we, as an insurance industry will feel the effects of that. And there's a lot I think, unknown about how that's going to transform over time and play out. But whenever we talk about mental health, I think, not to sound like an echo again, here. But another silver lining of the pandemic. And a benefit that came of it is also the the focus and attention that was brought to one of our value add services, employee assistance programs, EAP s, and those are, you know, traditionally tagged on to our long term disability coverage. But I do think it's more top of mind than ever, for employers where previously, it might have been more of an afterthought, or something that was reactive. And now I think employers are really trying to partner with their carriers and the providers of those EAPs. To put it more on the forefront be a more proactive resource, remind employees that this is available to them. And there could be tremendous positive impacts of that, whether it's just simply employee increased productivity, because they're not distracted by all this other stuff that's going on, they're able to focus and do a better job at at work, which benefits not only the employee, but of course, the employer, but then also you know what that might do in terms of preventing a disability claim, or even reducing the duration of a disability claim if we're partnering up and providing employees with these super valuable resources. So I do think it's a very exciting time. And it's it's nice to see some of the the open and honest dialogue out there. And it's going to be interesting to watch it evolve, and how that's going to impact some of our products and service offerings here.
Sarah Konecke:Yeah, I would say this is top of mind for many of my clients, to Emily's point, the transparency, that has brought people to talk about it and be open about it has brought light into the into each client's perspective as well. And to kind of be more proactive in thinking of what can we do to get our arms wrapped around it? You know, it's not something that's going to end. So how do we think future? How do we look at our benefits? How do we streamline that EAP service? You know, I've seen a lot of my clients, you know, put more documentation together more resources to push out, you know, even from a Lincoln perspective, including more information about EAP in the information that we're receiving just around all diagnoses. But you know, with a really big focus from a mental health perspective, also just offering different resources internally at employers that have that focus on the mental health, but I think it really is an exciting time. It's definitely not something that's going away. I think in general, it's it's opened us up to one being more transparent, listening, understanding kind of what's going on and being able to Emily's point, prevent future claims, you know, how do we get ahead of that, and kind of the things that we think about and put in place to to assist there?
Karen Batson:Well, last question for you guys. Do you think conversations will continue to evolve around short term disability and absence in general? And where do you see it going?
Sarah Konecke:Oh, yeah, absolutely. This is I think this is just the data we're on for quite a ride. And a fun ride. That is, as I said, you know, every day, it's something new, every get creative. Think about the different benefits. As I mentioned earlier, we're really kind of going down this path of financial wellness, right? So it's not just let's take short term disability or leave of absence, and yes, you have the state paid leave, but at the end of the day, it's this holistic approach to benefits. How does taking a disability impact your medical insurance? How do you plan for something like this, making sure that you have the insurance in place in the event that something happens? So as much as we focused today, just talking about disability in the short term, or you know, as maybe we'll call it income replacement someday, but It kind of it's it's a bigger picture. And you know, all of these pieces fit into that. And then again, it goes back to the whole education. So making sure that these employees know what they have access to and the benefits they have. But yeah, it's it's ever evolving. And we're just getting started
Emily Igrejas:Just scratching the surface. That's right.
Karen Batson:Well, any parting words on short term disability?
Emily Igrejas:Well, if if there's ever a time to plug it, I would say if you have short term disability coverage that's offered by your employer, make sure you're enrolled, and you're taking advantage of it. And if you aren't, you know, take the time to understand your benefits, like we talked about disability might sound harsh or catastrophic. But it is a reality for many employees. For many workers. And most people, they overestimate the cost and they underestimate their own individual need for it. So to Sarah's point, about financial wellness, give yourself and your family financial peace of mind to know that your income, your paycheck is protected in the event that you become sick or injured and unable to work. So there's my shameless plug.
Sarah Konecke:Couldn't have said it better.
Karen Batson:Well, thank you both for joining. I really appreciate your time,
Emily Igrejas:Of course. Thank you for having us.
Sarah Konecke:Thank you.
Karen Batson:Thank you all for listening today. We really hope you enjoyed today's episode. And of course, a special thank you to Sarah and Emily for joining the conversation. We always love to hear from you about what you think of the show or a particular episode. You can do that by reaching out to your Lincoln benefits professional sharing an episode or following us on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.
Disclosures:The information contained in this podcast is for general use and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney or your human resource professional. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National corporation and its affiliates. Affiliates are separately responsible for their own financial and contractual obligations.