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 Welcome to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment's newsletter for Colorado’s new paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program. We hope this newsletter provides you with valuable information and resources as we begin implementing the FAMLI program, which will start providing benefits in January 2024. We value your feedback and input! If you have any questions or content you would like to see, please share that with us at cdle_famli_info@state.co.us.
Most Colorado workers will see deductions come out of their first paycheck in January 2023. Now’s the time to get your employees ready for that change! It’s also important for your employees to know FAMLI benefits will not be available until January 2024. We’ve created the following tools for businesses to help prepare your staff:
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Required Program Notice:
The FAMLI statute requires that employers post a notice to inform workers about the FAMLI Program by January 1, 2023. We now have the Required 2023 FAMLI Program Notice poster up on the FAMLI website for you to download and post for your employees to see. It must be hung in a prominent, visible workplace location. Download your copy of the poster today!
Paycheck Stuffer
Another tool to help educate your employees about the FAMLI program is the FAMLI Paycheck Stuffer. Employers can pair this with their regular paystubs, post it to their intranet, distribute it in internal newsletters or any other internal communication channels that reach employees.
2023 FAMLI Employee Handbook
Our new 2023 FAMLI Employee Handbook is also available to businesses to add to their existing employee handbooks. This handbook provides your employees a high level overview of the program with details they need to know for 2023. We’ll be creating an updated version later next year before benefits become available in January 2024.
Spanish Versions
Several of our Employer Toolkit materials are now available in Spanish! The materials can be downloaded from our website here. The break room poster, sample pay stub, and HR fact sheet have been translated. We will have more Spanish versions coming soon!
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 Get Ready to Register with My FAMLI+ Employer
My FAMLI+ Employer is nearly here! We have successfully registered nearly 200 local government employers in the first phase of the soft launch of our employer services portal businesses across the state will use to manage their FAMLI accounts. The next phase of this slow roll out will be focused on the third party administrators that serve thousands of Colorado businesses, before we shift gears to employer administrators. If you have requested early access to My FAMLI+ Employer, keep an eye on your email inbox for your invitation. We will be opening up more opportunities to register throughout November. If you don’t receive an invitation, don’t worry! My FAMLI+ Employer will be available to all employers from famli.colorado.gov very soon! While every employer will need to register, registration can be completed any time before your first premium payments and wage reports are due on April 30, 2023.
Early access to My FAMLI+ Employer is currently only for local governments, third party administrators and employers at this time. Self employed individuals and employees of local governments who have opted out do not need to take any action until they can self-elect coverage when benefits become available in 2024.
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FAMLI Division Regulatory Update
Private Plan Rules will be Adopted Soon!
After gathering extensive feedback during our public comment period and virtual hearing earlier this month, we expect our rules regarding private plans to be adopted in the coming days. We will publish the final adopted rules on our rules page when that happens. To be notified with updates regarding our rulemaking process please update your email settings and subscribe to the topic by checking the box next to “Business and Community Stakeholders.”
Public Hearing Notice
Our proposed rules for Coordination of Benefits 7 CCR 1107-4 and proposed amendments to the adopted rules for Premiums 7 CCR 1107-1, Local Governments 7 CCR 1107-2 have been filed and are published on our rules page. A cost-benefit analysis has also been produced for the proposed amendments to the Premiums Rules. A virtual rulemaking public hearing will be held tomorrow:
Monday, November 1, 2022 at 5 p.m.
Anyone may submit comments to the FAMLI Division regarding any proposed or adopted rules at any time. The public comment period for these rules will close on Tuesday, November 2, 2022 at 8 a.m.
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 Upcoming Webinars
We have decided to postpone our planned webinar for October on Coordination of Benefits until those rules are formally adopted in the coming weeks. Instead, our November webinar will focus on Coordination of Benefits, and we will host three webinars in December focused on registering your business.
November 30th: Pre-Recorded Webinar on Coordination of Benefits
Week of December 5th: Registering Your Business with Live Open Forum
Week of December 12th: Pre-Recorded Webinar on Registering Your Business
Week of December 19th: Registering Your Business with Live Open Forum
If you miss a webinar, never fear! Each one is recorded and distributed in our monthly newsletters and published on our webinars page. If you have questions please use this form to submit them ahead of the next webinar.
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Does Your Business Work with a Third Party Administrator (TPA)?
Third party administrators (TPAs) will play a critical role in ensuring many employers are set up for success and remain in compliance with the requirements of the FAMLI program. We’ve created a dedicated page for TPAs with several new resources, including file format specifications for wage reporting and bulk registration, sample files, and payment schedules. If you are a TPA, or want to make sure your TPA is up to speed, we encourage you to share this page with your administrator and have them request early access to My FAMLI+ Employer to ensure their systems are prepared to begin payroll deductions in January 2023. We’ll be sharing more guidance and how-to guides for TPAs once My FAMLI+ Employer is live.
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 Share Your Story With Us!
We want to hear your personal stories. Please tell us how FAMLI could have or will help you. We are looking for stories from both individuals and employers, and may feature your experience in an upcoming newsletter or across social media. This month we’re featuring a heart-wrenching story from Kriss:
“In the early months of 2020, my 14 year old daughter … ended up at Children's hospital in Denver, as an inpatient for 83 days. At that time, FMLA only kept me from losing my job, but I lost 3 months of income while driving back and forth from Greeley to Denver daily … Covid shutdowns started 2 weeks into our hospital stay, and we had (our four other) kids home trying to do school. We went 3 months without any pay (and actually paid our companies for our health insurance). We used up our entire savings and then counted on friends, families and the GoFundMe pages set up for us. The stress of paying bills with no income while wondering if your child will survive is not something I'd wish on anyone.” —Kriss
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Update Your Email Preferences and Sign Up for Text Alerts
We transitioned to a new email delivery platform that will allow us to more efficiently target our email communications. Subscribers can also sign up to receive text alerts for updates on topics of interest. Update your email preferences and add your mobile number here (select SMS/Text Message from the drop down menu to add text alerts).
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