California Enhances myEDD to Help State Disability Insurance Customers

What You Need to Know: The Employment Development Department is making it easier for Californians to check their Disability Insurance or Paid Family Leave claim status without needing to call the Department. Enhancements to myEDD, its secure web portal, add more information about the status of a customer’s claim — including clear instructions when customers need to take action.

SACRAMENTO — In another step to modernizing California’s Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave benefit programs — and improving the customer experience — it’s now easier for Californians to check the status of their benefit applications online.

The Employment Development Department (EDD) enhancements offer more detailed information about the status of a customer’s claim. This includes better descriptions of what is happening with a claim and any outstanding actions needed to finish processing the application. These updates to myEDD are another step in modernizing California’s benefit programs and improving the EDD customer experience.

“These improvements mean customers will spend less time searching for information and more time recovering and being with their families,” said EDD Director Nancy Farias.

State Disability Insurance (SDI), which includes Paid Family Leave, is a complex public benefit program that requires a doctor, nurse practitioner, or health professional to submit a medical certification to complete a benefit claim. A claim will be delayed if EDD doesn’t receive that certification from the medical professional. The expanded claim status information now notifies customers if their certification is missing.
 
These improvements help customers get more detailed information about claim status and next steps. Examples of the claim status enhancements include:

• New Status column with updated claim statuses in plain language.
• Expanded Claim Status descriptions with clear instructions when a customer must take action on the claim.
• Improved organization and page layout to improve the customer experience.

Until now, a pending benefit claim was listed in myEDD as “pending processing” or “pending medical provider form,” but customers needed more information. In response, EDD added clickable status labels so customers can get additional details about exactly what is pending such as Medical Certification Needed, We’re Processing Your Claim, or Signature Needed. When a signature is missing, customers are clearly notified and advised to keep an eye out for a mailed document to sign and return.

Adding details about claim status makes it easier for customers to track the progress of a claim and avoid having to call EDD for updates. EDD will next add further enhancements, such as options to obtain claim status information through a virtual assistant (chatbot).
   
Today’s improvements follow the recent launch of a simpler online application for disability benefits based on customer research — another step in modernizing California’s benefit programs. EDD continues improving its programs and services as part of EDDNext, an ongoing modernization effort to completely transform the EDD customer and employee experience. EDDNext efforts include updating benefit applications, contact centers, the claims process, policies, procedures, and forms, to make the EDD experience easier and faster. It involves working with customer service experts, such as Amazon Web Services and Salesforce, to ensure EDDNext adopts cutting-edge technology and practices to help customers. Customer feedback also helped simplify and streamline the online application for the unemployment benefit program.

The Department’s Benefiting Californians blog posts regular updates about these efforts and many more.