The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

chapter 10 | reinstatement | 239
this form whenever an employee claims that a serious health condition
prevents his or her return to work; otherwise, you might be giving up your
right to reimbursement unnecessarily. The employee must return the form
within 30 days after you request it. If the employee doesn’t return the form
on time, or the form indicates that the employee or family member no
longer has a serious health condition, you may seek reimbursement.
You can’t seek reimbursement if an employee returns to work. An employee
who comes back for at least 30 days has returned to work, even if the employee
later quits. Similarly, an employee who goes directly from FMLA leave to
retirement or retires within 30 days after reinstatement is considered to have
returned to work.
What Your Company Can Recover
If the employee doesn’t return to work and neither of the exceptions
described above applies, your company may recover the following amounts:
• Health insurance costs. The company may seek reimbursement for its
share of the premium of the employee’s health benefits. If the employee
failed to pay his or her own share while on leave, the company may
seek reimbursement for that as well. Self-insured employers can recover
what the employee would have had to pay to continue health insurance
benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
(COBRA), which allows employees to continue their health insurance
benefits for a period of time, at their own expense, after leaving a job.
Although employers are allowed to charge employees an additional
2% under COBRA to cover the administrative expenses of continuing
benefits, you cannot recover this additional amount under the FMLA.
Caution
Your company can’t recover its own premiums if the employee is on paid
leave. As explained in Chapter 7, sometimes employees may—voluntarily
or by company requirement—substitute accrued paid leave, such as sick
or vacation time, for FMLA leave. If an employee does this and does not
return to work, your company may not recover its share of the premium
for health benefits while the employee was on paid leave.