When do I have to be offered cobra coverage?

If you are leaving your job and you had group coverage, you may be able to stay in your group plan for an extended time through COBRA or state continuation coverage. The information presented below was taken from publications prepared by the U.S. Department of Labor. You should contact them for more information about your rights under COBRA.

To qualify for COBRA continuation coverage, you must meet 3 criteria:

• First, you must work for an employer with 20 or more employees. If you work for an employer with 2-19 employees, you may qualify for state continuation coverage. (See below.)
• Second, you must be covered under the employer’s group health plan as an employee or as the spouse or dependent child of an employee.
• Finally, you must have a qualifying event that would cause you to lose your group health plan.

Each person who is eligible for COBRA continuation can make his or her own decision. If your dependents were covered under your employer plan, they may independently elect COBRA coverage as well.

You must be notified of your COBRA rights when you join the group health plan, and again if you qualify for COBRA coverage. The notice rules are somewhat complicated and you should contact the U.S. Department of Labor for more information.

In general, if the event that qualifies you for COBRA coverage involves the death, termination, reduction in hours worked, or Medicare eligibility of a covered worker, the employer has 30 days to notify the group health plan of this event. However, if the qualifying event involves divorce or legal separation or loss of dependent status, You have 60 days to notify the group health plan. Once it has been notified of the qualifying event, the group health plan has 14 days to send you a notice about how to elect COBRA coverage. Each member of your family eligible for COBRA coverage then has 60 days to make this election.

Once you elect COBRA, coverage will begin retroactive to the qualifying event. You will have to pay premiums dating back to this period.

To qualify as HIPAA eligible, you must choose and use up any COBRA or state continuation coverage available to you.

What will COBRA cover?

Your covered health benefits under COBRA will be the same as those you had before you qualified for COBRA. For example, if you had coverage for medical, hospitalization, dental, vision, and prescription drug benefits before COBRA, you can continue coverage for all of these benefits under COBRA. If these benefits were covered under more than one plan (for example, a separate health insurance and dental insurance plan) you can choose to continue coverage under any or all of the plans. Life insurance is not covered by COBRA.

If your employer changes the health benefits package after your qualifying event, you must be offered coverage identical to that available to other active employees who are covered under the plan.

What about coverage for my pre-existing condition?

Because your group coverage is continuing, you will not have a new pre-existing condition exclusion period under COBRA. However, if you were in the middle of a pre-existing condition exclusion period when your qualifying event occurred, you will have to finish it.

What can I be charged for COBRA coverage?

You must pay the entire premium (employer and employee share, plus a 2% administrative fee) for COBRA continuation coverage. The first premium must be paid within 45 days of electing COBRA coverage.

If you elect the 11-month disability extension, the premium will increase to 150% of the total cost of coverage. See below for more information about the disability extension.

If you are eligible for the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC), the federal government will pay 65% of our COBRA premium (see page 27).

How long does COBRA coverage last?

COBRA coverage generally lasts up to 18 months and cannot be renewed. However, certain disabled people can opt for coverage up to 29 months, and dependents are sometimes eligible for up to 36 months of COBRA continuation coverage, depending on their qualifying event (see box).

Usually, COBRA continuation coverage ends when you join a new health plan. However, if your new plan has a waiting period or a pre-existing condition exclusion period, you can keep whatever COBRA continuation coverage you have left during that period. For specifics, ask your former employer or contact the U.S. Department of Labor.

COBRA coverage also ends if your employer stops offering health benefits to other employees.

COBRA coverage might end if you are in a managed care plan that is available only to people living in a limited geographic area and you move out of that area. However, if you are eligible for COBRA and are moving out of your current health plan’s service area, your employer must provide you with the opportunity to switch to a different plan, but only if the employer already offers other plans to its employees. Examples of the other plans your employer may offer you are a managed care plan whose service area includes the area you are moving to, or another plan that does not have a limited service area.

What about state continuation coverage?

If your employer offers fully insured health benefits, you may also be eligible for up to 12 months of continuation coverage under a Mississippi law that is similar to COBRA. You must have had at least 3 months of continuous coverage under your group health plan in order to be eligible for state continuation coverage. Ask your former employer or the Mississippi Insurance Department if you think this applies to you.