In response to the upcoming implementation of the State's Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance program, also known as the Time to Care Act, MML is elated to negotiate and bring an alternative option to our members. We have partnered with other local government entities to present an alternative to the State plan for municipalities with 15 or more employees. This local government collaborative insurance plan can reduce your staff’s administrative burden and decrease the impact on your budget and your staff’s paycheck. A draft memorandum of agreement explains the operation of the collaborative.   

 Potential benefits of joining the collaborative:

•     Increased market power in securing a vendor to administer benefits for the broad co-op membership
•     Lower premiums than the State plan saves the employer and employee money
•     Avoid 15 months of pre-paying premiums before benefits become available (under the State program)
•     Reduced/shared administrative overhead costs in overseeing and managing the program
•     Security/simplicity of having one coordinated approval of plan structure and benefits for all participants

MML hosted a webinar with Bolton, the company that will administer the collaborative, on September 8. If you missed it or want to learn more, both the PowerPoint slides and a recording are available.  

The next step is time sensitive. If your municipality would like to participate in the collaborative, a letter of intent must be completed and returned to Bill Jorch, [email protected] no later than September 29. If meeting that deadline will be a problem, please contact Bill for more information.

Please note that there is a membership fee to join the collaborative, which is required to be paid by October 15, if you submit a letter of intent. Once a third-party insurance carrier is selected, a municipality may opt to not sign if the terms and rates are not acceptable, but the membership fee will not be refunded. The membership fee is an annual fee and will be in addition to the premium rate paid to the insurance carrier.

 Membership fees are as follows (payment details will be made available once the letter of intent has been received):

•     $3,000 for municipalities with fewer than 200 employees, 
•     $5,000 for municipalities with 200-499 employees, and 
•     $7,500 for municipalities with 500-999 employees.

Finally, to join the collaborative a municipality must provide demographic data on their employees. These data will be used as part of the request for proposal when soliciting bids from insurance carriers. More details on the exact data request will be available soon.  

MML will also be hosting an in-person session with the partners and Bolton at the Fall Conference to further answer questions. To register for the conference, please click Fall Conference Registration