The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

chapter 4 | leave for a serious health condition | 57
an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves:
• inpatient care at a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility
• incapacity for more than three calendar days with continuing treatment by
a health care provider
• incapacity due to pregnancy or prenatal care
• incapacity or treatment for a chronic serious health condition
• permanent or long-term incapacity for a condition for which treatment
may not be effective (such as a terminal illness), or
• absence for multiple treatments for either restorative surgery following an
injury or accident, or a condition that would require an absence of more
than three days if not treated.
Multiple and Undiagnosed Conditions Count
The FMLA applies to ailments for which health care providers have been unable
to offer a definitive diagnosis, as well as to incapacitation that is caused
by multiple ailments. As long as the condition meets the definition of one
of the categories described above, it’s a serious health condition—even if it
doesn’t (or doesn’t yet) have a name.
Inpatient Care
This is probably the easiest category to recognize as a serious health
condition. A condition that involves inpatient care—in other words, an
overnight stay—at a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility
qualifies as a serious health condition covered by the FMLA. An employee
is entitled to FMLA leave for the actual time the employee (or his or her
family member) is receiving inpatient care and for any period of incapacity
or subsequent treatment connected to that inpatient care.
A person is incapacitated by a serious medical condition if he or she is
unable to work, attend school, or perform other regular daily activities
due to the condition, treatment for the condition, or recovery from the