Maternity Leave

[Guest Darla K]

I have a client who is going out on maternity leave on December 1, 2002. She currently participates in the medical reimbursement and dependent care reimbursement accounts. She will be out on maternity leave for at least 6 weeks. The employer will pay her up to 7 days and then she goes out on disability. I have a few questions for the time she is on disability.

Also, her employer pays her insurance and will continue to do so the whole time she is out on the maternity leave.

1) Can she still submit claims for reimbursement after she goes out on disability even though she is no longer having a paycheck from the employer with deductions being taken out?

2) Can she sign up for the 2003 plan year at the open enrollment period in January 2003 or does she have to wait until she comes back from the leave of absence?

[papogi]

Will this fall under FMLA? Under FMLA, some companies (not many) will foot the employee's contributions into a HCFSA while he/she is out on leave. If they do, then the HCFSA continues without interruption. I think this is the case you are describing. If, however, the employer expects reimbursement, she should have pre-paid before going on leave, or she should pay as she goes. If the leave spans into the next plan year, any HCFSA election can continue to be paid by the company. If the plan provides that the returning employee must pay back the employer, she can do that when she returns.

Concerning the DCFSA, this should cease the day she starts the LOA. She is no longer eligible for the DCFSA at that point.

As far as open enrollment, it is typical that if benefits begin on 1/1/03, the open enrollment period is this October/November/December. You mentioned January, so that gets me wondering. Elections must be made before the coverage begins, so there really should be no activity in January. Either way, the open enrollment packet/info should be sent to this employee so that she can make elections for the new year from home. She can instead make elections when she returns, but only on a prospective basis, and only if this LOA provision is applied uniformly.

Let me know if I'm not hitting your question.