§ 208. Payment of disability and family leave benefits. 1. Benefits
provided under this article shall be paid periodically and promptly and,
except as to a contested period of disability or family leave, without
any decision by the board, or designee of the chair pursuant to section
two hundred twenty-one of this article. The first payment of benefits
shall be due on the fourteenth day of disability or family leave and
benefits for that period shall be paid directly to the employee within
four business days thereafter or within four business days after the
filing of required proof of claim, whichever is the later. If the
employer or carrier rejects an initial claim for family leave benefits,
the employer or carrier must notify the employee in a manner prescribed
by the chair within eighteen days of filing of the proof of claim.
Failure to timely reject shall constitute a waiver of objection to the
family leave claim. Thereafter benefits shall be due and payable
bi-weekly in like manner. The chair or chair's designee, pursuant to
section two hundred twenty-one of this article, may determine that
benefits may be paid monthly or semi-monthly if wages were so paid, and
may authorize deviation from the foregoing requirements to facilitate
prompt payment of benefits. Any inquiry which requires the employee's
response in order to continue benefits uninterrupted or unmodified shall
provide a reasonable time period in which to respond and include a clear
and prominent statement of the deadline for responding and consequences
of failing to respond.

2. The chair and superintendent of financial services may, whenever
such information is deemed necessary, require any carrier to file in
form prescribed by the chair a report or reports as to any claim or
claims, including (but without limitation) dates of commencement and
termination of benefit payments and amount of benefits paid under this
article. The chair and superintendent of financial services may also
require annually information in respect to the aggregate of benefits
paid, the number of claims allowed and disallowed, the average benefits
and duration of benefit periods, the amount of payrolls covered and such
other information as the chair may deem necessary for the purposes of
administering this article. If the carrier is providing benefits in
respect to more than one employer, the chair and superintendent of
financial services may require that such information be shown separately
as to those employers who are providing only benefits that are
substantially the same as the benefits required in this article. The
chair and superintendent of financial services may prescribe the format
of such report and may promulgate regulations to effectuate this
article.