California Employers Must Now Provide Health Benefits for Four Months for Pregnancy Disability
On October 8th, 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 299, requiring California employers with 5 or more employees to continue group health coverage for up to 16 weeks for employees on pregnancy disability leave. Existing state and federal laws such as FMLA, CFRA, PDL, and others allowed various periods of leave for pregnancy disability, but for many workers, there is no right to continue healthcare coverage on the employee’s group health plan during the pregnancy disability leave.
Background
The Family and Medical Leave Act provides employees the right to continuation of group health coverage, but FMLA applies only to employers with 50 or more employees. The California Family Rights Act requires that employers not only maintain coverage for a leave of absence for the birth of a child, but it also requires that the employer continue to pay for its share of the premium costs, for a maximum of 12 weeks. However, CFRA only covers a leave of absence related to the birth of a child, and excludes pregnancy related disability. Under CFRA, the employer has the right to recover premiums paid on behalf of the employee on leave if the employee does not return to work after the leave of absence for the pregnancy disability and/or birth leave of absence is completed.
Timeline and Details
Effective 1/1/2012, employers with 5 or more employees are required to maintain group health coverage and continue to pay the company’s share of the premium costs for a maximum of 16 weeks for pregnancy‐related disability. Employers are allowed under SB 299 to recover any premiums paid out for coverage on behalf of the employee if the employee does not return to work after the 16 weeks of leave is exhausted for the pregnancy disability and after any other leave of absence the employee is eligible for, such as family leave for the birth of the child, is completed.