County tables change to long-term disability policy, adopts amended FMLA language

Uintah County commissioners on Tuesday decided to delay a proposed change to the county’s long-term disability (LTD) policy and approved amendments to the county’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) policy.

Human Resources Director Tanya Craven presented two policy items. For LTD, Craven asked commissioners to consider returning to language in an earlier policy that allowed up to two years of disability coverage before termination; county HR and benefit brokers, however, recommended retaining the nine-month period. Commissioners voted to table Policy 460 to allow staff and legal to draft clarifying verbiage addressing issues such as employee-paid continuation of benefits and alignment with URS timelines.

“When I found that [the prior policy language] I thought I would bring that in and let the commission have an opportunity to view that and see if they would be willing to allow that term,” Craven said. After discussion, commissioners voted to table the item and asked staff and legal to draft clearer language.

The commission approved revisions to Policy 400 (FMLA). Craven recommended removing a provision that would require employees who do not return from FMLA to reimburse the county’s portion of insurance premiums. Legal and HR staff said recouping such premiums would be rare, administratively costly and likely not worth the expense. Commissioners voted to adopt the revised FMLA language as presented and directed HR and legal to draft clarifying language for the LTD policy for future consideration.

Commissioners also discussed interim options such as allowing employees who remain on leave to continue coverage by paying full premiums (similar to COBRA) if the commission chose to extend coverage beyond the nine-month recommendation; staff agreed to draft options.