§ 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.