The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is one of the employment laws that protect your staff. It is a federal law that requires certain employers to provide their employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for certain qualified medical and family reasons.
For a medical office employer, the FMLA requires that they provide eligible employees with job-protected leave for the following reasons:
- The birth of a child or the placement of a child for adoption or foster care
- The care of an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition
- The employee’s own serious health condition that makes them unable to perform the essential functions of their job
- Any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty”
The employer is also required to maintain the employee’s health insurance during the leave period and restore the employee to their same or an equivalent job upon their return from leave.
