FMLA Questions

[French]

We are reviewing and trying to streamline our FMLA process. There are some disagreements amongst the team regarding some of the info contained within the regs and what level of flexibility the employer has.

We currently offer the pay-as-you-go and catch-up payment options. Can we offer just one?

We currently allow the employee to decide which of our benefit they want to continue. Can we eliminate this as a choice and state that they all must continue?

[Sheila K]

French:

We only offer the catch-up payment offer. We've had great luck with it and only twice in four years have we had employees who did not return to work and gave us trouble collecting back premiums. We have updated our policies so that we can move these premiums to our collection department and obtain judgment if necessary (we are a financial institution, so we can turn the debt into a loan).

In addition, we do not offer choices for what can be selected-our employees get it all continued. How can you allow an employee to drop a medical plan in the middle of a plan year, since FMLA is not a qualifying event? Seems like your carrier would not allow this either.

[Mary C]

We only allow the pay as you go method and we do cancel coverage is payments are not made. However, you must follow the FMLA guidelines regarding the period of time the payments are behind and sending the proper notices.

We also allow them to cancel any coverages they do not wish to retain during FMLA - i.e., drop dependents from coverage but retain their coverage, drop life insurance, etc. While an FMLA is not an event, beginning or returning from an unpaid leave is an event to allow changes to coverage. We require that the employee exhaust all paid time off before taking an FMLA making our FMLA leaves unpaid.

[French]

After reviewing additional information and additional discussions, we came to the conclusion that we must follow the same payment rules that are in effect for our other unpaid leaves of absences. As it turns out, the payment options offered for sabbaticals is different than for any other personal leaves of absence, so we must continue to offer both the catch-up and pay-as-you-go options.

Thanks for all your comments on this subject.

Another question though - definition of service. If an employee is a rehire with an adjusted date of hire but has only been on the payroll for 6 months out of the prior 12 months, has the requirement of being employed for one year been fulfilled? There is disagreement about this amongst our team. It would seem that being on the payroll means to be employed but since we use the adjusted service date for purposes of retirement plan vesting and paid time off accrual calculations, shouldn't it be applied consistently across all "plans"?

Again, appreciate any comments/questions regarding this.

[Guest slb1113]

was the employee employed at least 12 months prior to break in service?

[French]

Sometimes but not always. If an employee was employed for 6 months and then left for 2 or 3 and then returned, we will do an adjusted service date. Again that date becomes applicable for several of our benefit plans.