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This bill
prohibits the formation of private group trusts to pool risk among multiple
employers for the provision of paid family and medical leave benefits, while
still allowing multiple employers to share the cost of legal, accounting, and
third-party administrator expenses. If allowed, such private group trusts
would function as an alternative to the State trust, which pools the costs
and risks of paid family and medical leave benefits statewide, and could
potentially reduce the premium contributions paid to the State as well as the
benefit claims paid out by the State.
In practice, the Department of Labor (department) has interpreted the
statute establishing the paid family and medical leave benefits program to
only allow coverage models explicitly identified in the statute and to
prohibit all others. Consequently, the department has not approved any
private group trusts to date and this fiscal note assumes there are none
currently in operation. This bill
codifies the department's interpretation in statute and therefore has no
fiscal impact on the State. |