Your company is required by law to pay the same portion of the health insurance premium as they would normally pay...but only when FMLA is present and only for the duration of FMLA. If FMLA is not involved or if FMLA has expired, they are not/no longer obligated to continue to pay health insurance premiums.
Since the new policy is to continue paying for 26 weeks, that covers FMLA plus an additional 14 weeks and is actually doing more than the law requires.
One thing you might want to check, though. Although the policy is legal on its face, if you haven't changed the plan document you cannot change the policy. I'm not talking about the employee handbook - I'm talking about the health insurance plan document. If they want to change the policy, they have to change the plan document first. If they've done that, then you're all systems go.