Is there any requirement under federal law that employers must give employees at least 30 days advance notice of a premium increase for health or dental plans? I have an employer who only notified employees last week of rate increases for September 1, 2003. An employee says under the law they are required to receive 30 days advance notice.

I don't believe so, although our HR director always says the same thing, so I am interested in seeing if anyone else has any thoughts about that.

Under ERISA, notice of a material reduction in covered services or benefits, which I believe a premium increase would fall into, has to be provided within 60 days after the date of the adoption of the change.

There is no notification requirement of benefit or rate change required (unless there are some specific states that may require this). It is just good practice.

Although the employers do not have to notify the employees on group health plans, the insurance carriers are required to provide written notification at least 30 days (sometimes more, 45 days or 60 days, depending upon state and product) before a rate increase or benefit change.
Maybe the employee has heard that and applied it to the employer as well.

Agreed. There's no legal requirement to notify employees 30 days before a rate increase. It's a smarter thing to do, but unfortunately sometimes an employer can not help it depending on how bumpy the renewal process went.