Chapter 180
2010 -- H 8198
Enacted 06/25/10
A N A C T
RELATING TO
INSURANCE - EXTENDED MEDICAL LEAVE
Introduced By: Representative Brian P. Kennedy
Date Introduced: May 27, 2010
It is enacted by the
General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Title 27 of the General Laws entitled
"INSURANCE" is hereby amended
by adding thereto the following chapter:
CHAPTER
18.7
EXTENDED
MEDICAL LEAVE
27-18.7-1. Medical
benefits for employees on extended medical leave -- Whenever an
employee who has been employed on a full-time basis by an
employer for at least three (3)
months and who is an insured member of a group hospital,
surgical, or medical insurance plan is
placed on extended medical leave by the employer, the
employee may remain on the group
hospital, surgical, or medical insurance plan and the benefits
of the plan may be continued for no
more than eighteen (18) months from the date the employee
was placed on extended medical
leave.
27-18.7-2. Costs
of the plan. – An employer may continue to contribute to the cost of
the
plan benefits for an employee on extended medical leave or
may require an employee on
extended medical leave to pay up to one hundred percent (100%)
of the cost of the plan benefits.
27-18.7-3. Eligibility
for medical benefits while on extended medical leave. – (a) An
employee shall be considered eligible for continuing coverage
under the group hospital, surgical,
or medical insurance plan as an employee on extended
medical leave if an employer provides to
the group hospital, surgical, or medical insurance plan a
written statement that explains that, due
to medical reasons pertaining to the employee or a
member of the employee's family (parent,
child, step-child, spouse, sibling or a person for whom the
employee serves as a legal guardian),
the employee can no longer work full-time, the employee
and the employer anticipate that the
employee will someday return to full-time employment, and the
employer has placed the
employee on extended medical leave.
(b) Nothing in this
statute shall be construed to give an insurance company, a health
maintenance organization or a nonprofit hospital and medical
service corporation the ability to
determine whether an employee is eligible for extended medical
leave. The determination of
whether an employee is eligible for extended medical leave
rests solely with, and in the discretion
of, the employer. Nothing in this statute shall be
construed to require an employer to offer
extended medical leave to its full-time employees.
27-18.7-4.
Transition to extended medical benefits. – Once an employee on
extended
medical leave has remained on a group hospital, surgical, or
medical insurance plan for eighteen
(18) months and is no longer
eligible to participate in that plan, the employee shall be eligible for
extended medical benefits under chapter 19.1 of title 27 as if
the employee were involuntarily
terminated from employment the day he or she is no longer
eligible to participate in the plan as an
employee on extended medical leave.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC02747
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