Military Leave Benefits

Sharon

We have two locations-one in Florida and one in Alabama. We have found out our Alabama office will cancell an employees insurance if he/she fails to pay the premiums while on military leave. They do reinstate their insurance once the employee returns. I know we have to allow employees who take more than 30 days of military leave to continue coverage-at the employees expense-but what about less than 30 days? Is our alabama office going to get into trouble for cancelling the employee's insurance? How do most companies handle this?

Down_the_Middle

I don't see a problem with cancelling the health coverage for non-payment of premiums as long as this is consistently applied across the organization to other employees on leave of absence. Under USERRA, employees must be given COBRA-like continuation for up to 18 months when they go on military leave. Employees who are on leave for 31 days or less may not be charged any more than they would be paying if they were still actively employed. I'll assume if premiums would be paid by the employee, uninterrupted coverage would continue. It doesn't sound as though there's a problem with cancelling the coverage (for non-payment) as long as the employee's coverage is re-instated w/o any waiting periods when they return from leave.