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Cross Insurance Webinar: Paid Family and Medical Leave Self-Insured Group
The Manufacturers Association of Maine will be hosting a webinar with Cross Insurance to inform members about the PFML program. Please join us to learn more about this program, but also feel free to reach out to us before April 22nd because the deadline is quickly approaching. Below is the statement from Cross.
“Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) is a state-mandated program that will provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave to Maine workers beginning in May of 2026. All Maine employers have been required to pay into the program as of January 1, 2025 but may be exempted from the program if they are approved for a private plan by May 31st.
As you know, we’re working on creating a self-insured group to meet these requirements. There are a number of potential benefits of a group program: better control, more efficient administration, tiered rating that tracks with experience, refunds for lower cost results, TPA services for appeals and disputes, sharing best practices, and ownership of any pre-payments. Over 40 companies have expressed an interest in working together to provide and fund this benefit and a great deal of work has been done to further those efforts.
Currently, the law requires each individual company to make application to MDOL for permission and the application requires a surety bond naming that company. Cross is working to streamline and expedite both the application and the bond purchase.
Our preliminary actuarial study indicates that if the program performs as advertised, the group will break even with a premium that is approximately .84% of payroll. This compares favorably to the state’s initial premium of 1%. At that level, there would be no need for pre-payments, but the prospective members have proposed collecting six months of premium in advance starting in November 2025. This would amount to banking money against adverse experience, but it would not be spent or paid to the state or an insurance company but returned to the members if not needed.
Our goal is to get all members approved prior to May 31 so that you no longer need to contribute any money to the state effective April 1. If you join and are approved before 5/31, you will not have any payments due from April 1 until the Group’s pre-funding starting November 1.”