long term disability and health insurance

Amyl

We are a larger company (5000 employees). We have a policy that a person may be on medical leave for as long as up to 2 years, at which point we review the situation and if appropriate, terminate them. We have an individual on long term disability. Typically, we keep the employee on medical benefits during the entire leave period at the normal cost (i.e., it's not COBRA at this point). The carrier is telling us that since this employee is not "active" their contract w/us requires them to take them off the benefits plan. Our options at this point seem to be (1) trying to move him onto another plan that allows continued coverage; or (2) telling him to start COBRA -- which begins his 29 months now instead of at the end of the 2 years -- we'd probably pay the cost during the LTD. Any other possibilities? This employee is located in California.