Want to bid on administering Washington’s family-leave program?
Within the state of Washington, recent legislation will provide parents of newborn and newly adopted children with up to 5 weeks of paid family leave at up to $250 per week. Benefits are to begin Oct. 1, 2009, but the law did not provide for the program’s administration.
A Joint Legislative Task Force, charged with exploring options for the administration of the new parental-leave program, contacted Jesse Rothschild, president of Rothschild-Landry Holding Inc., based in St. Francisville, La. Rothschild has spent several years exploring and developing methods of insuring family leaves.
After discussing Washington’s needs with several private-sector insurance companies, Rothschild explained to the task force that the private sector is interested in bidding on the administration of Washington’s family-leave program.
“Those companies who have experience in work-leave management are in an excellent position to provide those same services to Washington,” stated Jesse Rothschild. “Insurance companies offering disability products, and ‘leave management’ companies that administer vacation, sick leave, holidays, and other leaves for large businesses, already have the practice, administrative procedures, staffing and infrastructure to handle the complexities of Washington’s new program–and should be able to do so more economically than the state.”
While some members of the Joint Legislative Task Force seem determined that the state should administer its own program, key business representatives on the task force have pushed hard to give private-sector companies an opportunity to save Washington money while providing top-quality administration.
Companies interested in bidding on administering Washington’s family-leave program should first respond to Washington’s Request for Information by Dec. 7, 2007. The Request for Information can be downloaded from http://www.leg.wa.gov/Joint/Committees/FLI/.
For detailed information, contact task force members listed at http://www.leg.wa.gov/documents/joint/fli/contactlist.pdf /.
Inquiries also can be addressed to Jesse Rothschild by phoning 225-784-9116 or sending an e-mail to: [email protected].