My company's disability plan was outsourced to Lincoln Financial, but shouldn't the FMLA process be the same as before?

The company I work for in California, has a self-insured disability plan that they apparently recently outsourced to Lincoln Financial to administer. Because I had used FMLA once in the past, when I simply needed to provide my doctor’s certification directly to HR and give as much notice as possible prior to taking the leave, I fully expected this request for FMLA to mirror the prior experience. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The main number for our HR department now had a system in place to route any medical leave requests directly to a Lincoln Financial number. The representative asked me to sign a medical release form, but I had already had my doctor fill out the old certification forms. I told them I did not agree with the audacious language of their form and reiterated that my doctor had already filled out my certification and that it was my understanding that I was under no obligation to give them authorization to track down any medical record that I had, that all I needed to provide for the FMLA was the certification. Do I need to hire an attorney just to apply for a few weeks of FMLA?