Mandated handling of leaves from large and small employers

[Guest JaimeOHR]

I've received a question, in essence:

Do carrier contracts over-ride employee handbooks related to policies surrounding leave of absence?

Must a group move an employee on a leave of absence from the group contract to to COBRA or Cal-COBRA at the end of a leave?

Where can I find any supporting documentation of what carriers are required to do in terms of employee leaves of absence?

[mroberts]

Carrier contracts will always trump an employee handbook since the contract legally governs how benefits are paid. I would suggest providing each of your insurance carriers the verbage in your employee handbook that deals with leaves of absence and see if they can match it in their contract. If for whatever reason they can't, I would highly recommend changing your employee handbook to meet their guidelines since this could lead to potential litigation.