27. Health insurance

Employers are required to maintain the same health insurance plan for the worker during the leave. G.L. c. 175M, § 2(f). However, the worker generally still has to pay their portion of the monthly insurance cost. 458 C.M.R. 2.16(1). If a worker does not make arrangements with HR to make these payments during the leave, they may face a large bill for unpaid premiums when they return to work. The easiest way to avoid the large bill is to use a small amount of PTO each week to “top off” PFML benefits and arrange for HR to deduct health insurance premiums from this PTO payment.