GENERAL PURPOSE

The Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church hereby establishes this Adoption Agreement to govern, manage and operate the health benefits (health and dental and any other health-type benefits available at future dates), hereafter known as the Plan, for all covered participants and their eligible dependents. This Adoption Agreement shall outline eligibility and participation requirements for lay employees. This Adoption Agreement will be effective on Jan. 1, 2011.  This agreement is binding for the entire 2011 calendar year.

Lay Employee Eligibility Guidelines

Lay employees employed at the Church/Organization normally scheduled to work 30 hours or more per week in a calendar year and who has been employed for at least 30 days will be eligible for health and benefit plans. Benefits will begin on the first of the month following 30 days of employment.

Seventy-five percent of all eligible lay employees of the church/organization must be enrolled in the health plan.  (Employees covered on their spouse’s health insurance plan or enrolled in a health plan effective 90 days prior to employment, covered under COBRA or retirement benefits, may be excluded from the seventy-five percent calculation).

Eligible lay employers would be:

• Local churches
• Extension ministries
• Daycare/schools

CAUTION: Supply Pastors are considered lay employees for benefit eligibility purposes.  Subsequently, the same eligibility rules for lay employees apply to Supply Pastors.
Mid-Year Benefit Eligibility Changes for Local Churches
If you anticipate changes within your employee population that would affect eligibility for benefits – you should consider executing the adoption agreement now.  You only have one opportunity each year to adopt the Conference benefit plans. Once the adoption agreement is in place, you can determine the Effective Date (the date you want your church to begin participating) at a later time.  Having the agreement in place allows you the flexibility to beginning offering benefits anytime during the calendar year should you decide to do so.

The Church/Organization agrees to remit payment for the participant’s premiums.

For additional information regarding eligibility for health plans, details of plans or continuation of coverage after termination, please refer to the Human Resources Manual on the Human Resources’ website at www.flumc.org.
  
Please click on the link below to open the portion of the adoption agreement that needs to be signed and returned to conference human resources office.

Click here for Adoption Agreement for Conference Health Insurance form