QUESTION: Does our company have to pay for employees’ health coverage while they are on FMLA leave?

ANSWER: Your company does not have to pay your employees’ share of health coverage premiums while they are on FMLA leave. However, employers covered by the FMLA (generally, private-sector employers with 50 or more employees and public agencies and local educational agencies with any number of employees) must maintain coverage under any group health plan for the duration of an FMLA leave at the level and under the conditions that coverage would have been provided if the employee had been continuously employed for the duration of the leave. This means that, if your company is covered by the FMLA, it must pay the same share of the health coverage premiums for an employee on FMLA leave as it would have paid if the employee had not been on leave.

To dig deeper, visit the original article on the Thomson Reuters blog.