What counts as a serious health condition under the FMLA?

A serious health condition under the FMLA in Virginia is an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that requires inpatient care or continuing treatment by a healthcare provider. This includes conditions such as pregnancy, chronic serious health conditions, permanent or long-term conditions, and certain conditions requiring multiple treatments. This also includes absences due to incapacity as well as treatment for substance abuse. Inpatient care includes an overnight stay in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility, including any period of incapacity or treatment that would require an overnight stay in such a facility. A continuing treatment is treatment two or more times by a health care provider, or any one treatment with a continuing regimen of treatment. For a chronic serious health condition, it must require at least two visits to a health care provider per year, or ongoing treatment. Pregnancy and prenatal care also count as a serious health condition under the FMLA. A physical or mental condition that caused a period of incapacity of more than three consecutive calendar days, as well as treatment or continuing treatment, falls under the serious health condition category. Lastly, conditions that may cause episodic rather than continuing treatment are also considered serious health conditions under the FMLA in Virginia. Chronic conditions such as asthma, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and cancer are automatically considered serious health conditions, even if the employee does not seek treatment from a health care provider.

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What counts as a serious health condition under the FMLA?

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