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February 13, 2025

This is an official communication from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment's Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) Division.

February spotlight: Understanding Absence Parameters

FAMLI Intermittent Leave operates more like FMLA intermittent leave when you are determining the Absence Parameter Limit for your patients. 

As a reminder, the Serious Health Condition form is where you will certify the Absence Parameter that best suits your patient’s health conditions and typical work week schedule. When you are filling out the Serious Health Condition form for your patients, you have the option to determine a 7-day Absence Parameter Limit or a 30-day Absence Parameter Limit. You must choose one option for your patient; do not choose both.

If you choose the 30-day option, then your patients will enter their leave hours and be subject to the 30-day rolling look-back period. My FAMLI+ looks back and not forward. 

Some FAMLI claimants are exceeding their certified absence parameters, not realizing the 30-day parameter is calculated as a running total of the previous 30 calendar days. This is causing an error when they are entering their leave hours into the system, because they are reporting more leave hours in the  30-day period than their provider has approved. 

If your patient ends up needing more leave hours in a 30-day period, they will need to end their current claim and file a new claim. You as the health care provider will have to fill out a new Serious Health Condition Form that certifies the increased number of leave hours. 

FAMLI produced this video to support your patients in reporting their intermittent leave hours: 

Providers are asking

Can two or more people take FAMLI leave for the same person’s Serious Health Condition?

Yes. FAMLI rules do not dictate how many claimants may take FAMLI leave, only that each claimant is allotted 12 weeks of leave during one benefit year (4 additional weeks possible for a person with pregnancy or birth complications). However, each claimant must file their own claim and upload the required supporting documentation.

Example 1

Roxana needs FAMLI leave for her own serious health condition and will take eight weeks of continuous leave from her job for surgery and recovery. Her son, Andre, takes intermittent FAMLI leave to drive Roxana to and from her surgery and follow-up medical appointments. Both Roxana and Andre need to file their own FAMLI leave claims. The health care provider treating Roxana will have to certify the serious health condition forms for both Roxana and Andre.  

Example 2

Naomi and Jennifer’s mother, Margaret, fell and broke her hip. Naomi and Jennifer, as well as Naomi’s husband Marcelo, all request intermittent FAMLI leave to help care for Margaret. All three of them (Naomi, Jennifer and Marcelo) will need to file their own claims and get their own serious health condition forms certified by Margaret’s health care provider.

Share your FAMLI experience!

Health care providers like you are essential to making Colorado’s paid-leave program a success. Did you know that more than 8,000 providers have registered in Colorado’s My FAMLI+ portal for Health Care Providers? And that Colorado is the only paid-leave state with a portal to cut down on paperwork and delays for providers and claimants?

Now we’re looking for providers to share their stories about how Colorado’s FAMLI program is working for providers and their patients. Just fill out the form below and we’ll get in touch to set up a time that works for your schedule.  

Include FAMLI in your after-visit summaries

After-visit summaries are super important for health care providers. They let patients know their next steps and give them crucial information about their health.

Now you can make those summaries even more valuable by letting your patients know about paid family and medical leave in Colorado. We encourage you to copy-and-paste the message below into your after-visit summaries: 

Did you know that nearly all workers in Colorado now qualify for paid leave to take care of themselves or a loved one with a serious health condition? Pregnancy qualifies as a serious health condition, and both parents are eligible to take up to 12 weeks to bond with a new child. Some employers may be using a private insurance plan to offer their paid family leave coverage. Talk to your employer and find out more at famli.colorado.gov.

We also encourage you to print out our “What-Is-FAMLI” flyers in both English and Spanish. These flyers are a great introduction to FAMLI and will point your patients in the right direction to learn more.