Benefits Update Beth Ritchie

1
Benefits Update Beth Ritchie

• ETF issued an Employer Bulletin, dated December
  11, 2007, that clarified the administration of
  the employer share of health insurance premium
  for an employee who is on a LOA and has periodic
  or occasional earnings.
• Leave of Absence
• Any period of time in which an employee is not
  working for, or receiving earnings from, the
  employer and has not terminated the
  employer-employee relationship as defined in
  40.02 (40).

2
Benefits Update Beth Ritchie

• Duration of Employer Share of Health Insurance
  Premium
• The employee has two months of the employer
  share when LOA begins because premium is paid 2
  months in advance. The employee may receive
  three additional months of the employer share
  while on LOA 40.05 (4)(a) 3., a.
• Return To Work
• The employee is eligible for the employer share
  of health insurance premium when the LOA has
  ended. A LOA is deemed to have ended when the
  employee has resumed active performance of duty
  for at least 50 of what is considered his or her
  normal work time with that employer.

3
Benefits Update Beth Ritchie

• An employee on a medical leave of absence has to
  exhaust 1044 hours of sick leave in order to be
  eligible for the ICI benefit. As this is a
  legitimate use of paid leave may the employer
  contribute its share of premium for the sixth
  month of coverage while on LOA?
• If an employee temporarily reduces his schedule
  from full time to part time and then goes on LOA,
  how will the employee have to return to work for
  25 for 30 days or 50 for 30 days before he is
  considered to have returned from LOA?

4
Benefits Update Beth Ritchie

• If an employee temporarily reduces his schedule
  from full time to part time due to a medical
  reason but does not go out on a 100 LOA, can he
  continue to get the employer contribution
  indefinitely?
• If someone is on a full time LOA, we allow
  employer contributions for health insurance for
  an additional three months.  If that employee
  reduces their assignment to less than half time
  because of a partial LOA, do they have to pay
  less than half time rates? 

5
Benefits Update Beth Ritchie

• If a part time employee with a varied schedule is
  going to go on LOA, how does he/she exhaust their
  paid leave?  If they dont have a normal
  schedule, how do we determine how much time
  should be used each pay period?
• If an employee pays the full share for April, May
  and June but then is back to work at least part
  time for 30 days as of May 20, who refunds the
  employer share of the June premium to the
  employee?

6
Benefits Update Beth Ritchie

• For 9-month faculty or instructional staff, we
  take multiple deductions from the May paycheck to
  cover the summer months of premium. If the
  employee starts the LOA at the beginning of the
  fall semester, do the multiple deductions count
  towards the three months of employer contribution
  for an employee on LOA?
• What happens if "catastrophic" or donated leave
  comes in to play after the employee has been off
  and prepays have been taken?  Is there any
  situation in which it is ok for an employee to
  receive more than 3 additional months of state
  share?