Federal and California
(Cal)COBRA basically provides that if you are no longer
covered under your Employer's
group
health plan, you can keep the coverage for 18 (Federal) or 36 months
(California) at 2 to 10% more than
the employer was paying for you.
Steve talks about Cal - COBRA
If you have
problems obtaining your COBRA or
CAL COBRA coverage, we can lead you in the right direction. It's basically
though something that
you arrange directly through your Former Employer's HR
Department or Insurance Company.
When your COBRA expires... you are then eligible for
HIPAA, until you reach
Medicare eligibility.
Get Quotes for the Healthy Members of your Family
or see if you can get a better alternative than COBRA. With your own
coverage you have the option of taking a higher deductible,
HSA or not taking
maternitydental, life
or vision to save $$$.
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) -
COBRA is a federal law that provides rights to temporary continuation of
group
health plan coverage for certain employees, retirees and family members
at group rates when coverage is lost due to certain
qualifying events. Generally, COBRA applies to employers who employed 20
or more employees in the prior calendar year. If the group health plan is a
multi-employer, collectively bargained plan, only one contributing employer
needs to have 20 or more employees in the prior year in order for COBRA to
apply to the whole plan.
There is a minimum 30-day grace period for each
successive payment due date. Payment is considered made on the date it is
postmarked (if it is mailed), not the date of the check or the date the
payment is physically received by the Plan.
questions.cms.hhs.gov
Under the new regulations, qualified beneficiaries must receive what is
called an “Early Termination Notice” if they lose coverage due to failure to
make payment by the due date or within the grace period.
dol.gov/Sample
Termination Notice
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) gives
workers and their families who lose their health benefits the right to choose to
continue group health benefits provided by their group health plan for limited
periods of time under certain circumstances
"Qualifying Event" such as voluntary or involuntary job
loss, reduction in the hours worked, transition between jobs, death, divorce,
and other life events. Qualified individuals may be required to pay the entire
premium for coverage up to 102 percent of the cost to the plan. (110% for
Cal Cobra)
COBRA generally requires that group health plans sponsored by
employers with 20 or more employees in the prior year (2 with
Cal Cobra) offer employees and their
families the opportunity for a temporary extension of health coverage (called
continuation coverage) in certain instances where coverage under the plan would
otherwise end.
COBRA outlines how employees and family members may elect
continuation coverage. It also requires employers and plans to provide notice.
Department of
Labor
When there occurs a "qualifying event" that
entitles persons covered by an employer group health plan to elect
continuation coverage, such as the employee’s termination of employment or
death, the divorce of the employee and his or her spouse, or a dependent
child’s ceasing to qualify for dependent coverage under the plan, a notice
of the right to elect continuation coverage generally must be sent to each
person (termed in the COBRA law a "qualified beneficiary") who has that
right. If the "qualifying event" is the employee’s termination, reduction of
hours or death, the employer has 30 days after the event (or, if later, 30
days after the date coverage is lost) to notify the plan administrator,
which in turn must give the notice of COBRA rights within 14 days to persons
entitled to elect coverage. (If the employer and the plan administrator are
the same, it has the full 44 days to give the notice.) How soon the notice
is provided affects how long eligible persons have to elect continuation
coverage because they must be given at least 60 days from the date of the
notice.
Wilcox & Savage EsqDOL
Reporting & Disclosure Guide
"Trying to negotiate my way through all the confusing health insurance mumbo jumbo was truly frustrating. But finding Steve Shorr's website was like discovering an oasis in a desert of non-information!"
