COBRA Offering to Retirees
When a covered employee becomes entitled to Medicare before retiring, a covered spouse may receive up to 36 months of COBRA continuation from the date of Medicare entitlement.
Questions about your benefits? Contact your HR administrator.
Guidance on cobra administration and compliance — practical resources for employers, brokers, and benefits teams navigating real operational questions.
When a covered employee becomes entitled to Medicare before retiring, a covered spouse may receive up to 36 months of COBRA continuation from the date of Medicare entitlement.
When a covered employee becomes entitled to Medicare before retirement, the spouse may be eligible for up to 36 months of COBRA continuation coverage.
Cobra Control Services (CCS) provides continuant monthly coupons to use to send payment for COBRA coverage.
Q.- What happens if we forget to send a COBRA qualifying event letter to a terminated employee?
Cybercriminals continue to target employees and former employees using fake benefits communications designed to steal personal information.
Q.- Is it true a former employee can elect COBRA but not pay for it with the election?
When administering COBRA or continuation of coverage, timely access to documentation is an important part of maintaining accurate records and responding to employee inquiries.
MyEnroll360 offers quick and easy access to COBRA qualifying event letters, streamlining benefits management for HR.
When an employee terminates employment, their FSA must be handled carefully to ensure accurate administration and compliance.
How long does an individual have to elect COBRA coverage? Individuals generally have 60 days to elect COBRA coverage, measured from the later of the date...
When does COBRA continuation coverage begin after a qualifying event? COBRA coverage begins on the date that group health coverage would otherwise end due...
Did you know that when you process a COBRA or Continuation of Coverage qualifying event letter in MyEnroll360 it is available for download on the next business day?
HR teams should watch for benefits-related scams that use urgency or requests for sensitive information to impersonate legitimate requests.
U.S.P.S. postmark timing is an integral part of COBRA notice, election, and payment timelines.
MyEnroll360 offers quick and easy access to COBRA qualifying event letters, streamlining benefits management for HR.
Q.- An employee terminated in August. She elected COBRA but took her full 60 days to do so. She wants her payments to be applied starting in November since she hadn’t elected
Everything you need in the cloud for COBRA administration & compliance notifications, premium billing and collection, so you can concentrate on your business and leave the rest to
Q: An employee is going to drop her spouse from coverage at open enrollment. We know they are in the process of getting a divorce. The spouse contacted us and demands to be kept
Can an employee who was not enrolled in our health coverage elect COBRA? No. COBRA continuation coverage is only available to individuals who were actively...
Q. An employee is terminating. Can we hold his last paycheck until he either waives COBRA continuation coverage, elects and pays for coverage, or allows the election period to
Q: Can a former employee get more than 18 months of COBRA coverage? A: In certain cases, COBRA continuation coverage can be extended beyond the standard 18-month period.
Q.- Our health plan runs on a 7/1 to 6/30 plan year. An employee enrolled in the plan starting July 1 and then terminated employment July 2. Do we have to offer COBRA? He was only
Q: What happens if we forget to send a COBRA qualifying event letter and the employee doesn’t receive their COBRA election notice on time?
Q.- One of our employees who had family coverage just found out he was not legally married. We will terminate the “wife” from coverage, but do we have to offer her COBRA? If
Q.- A terminated employee wants to elect COBRA. He said he doesn’t have a checking account anymore and told us we have to allow him to pay using his credit card. Is this true? Do
There may be times when HR needs to reference a qualifying event letter sent to a continuant.
Q.- We have an employee who is currently on long-term disability. Company policy is to discontinue an employee’s medical benefits if they are on leave longer than 6 months. Next
Q.- Are we required to send COBRA qualifying event notices by certified mail to make sure they are received?
CCS provides monthly payment coupons for continuants to use to remit payment for coverage.
Q.- Do we have to provide a COBRA qualifying event election letter in a non-English language if we know the recipient does not speak English?
A termination reason no longer has to be indicated to launch a qualifying event letter.
Q.- We are going out of business. What do we do about our employees’ benefits? Our business is part of a controlled group but our employees don’t have anything to do with the
Q.: What happens if a former employee on our health plan through COBRA makes a late payment?
Q.: An employee terminated employment. He did not have a health FSA election for the plan year, but he did have a carryover balance from prior years. Should he be given a COBRA
of their retirement benefits such as medical, dental, vision, life insurance and other benefits, BAS’ retiree premium billing provides all the services you need to...
Q.- An employee is terminating employment, and we know he is moving far away. Do we have to offer him COBRA if we know he will be outside our plan’s coverage area?
Q.- A former employee continued coverage under COBRA. She terminated COBRA effective 12/31/2024 and enrolled in a Marketplace plan starting 1/1/2025. She doesn’t like the plan and
Q: A former employee did not have to use coverage during the month she left employment. She wants to start COBRA at the beginning of the second month. We would be fine with this.
Q.- An employee terminated employment and is receiving a COBRA election. She was on our buy-up plan but says she wants to have our standard plan under COBRA. Do we have to offer
Cobra Control Services (CCS) provides continuants with monthly COBRA payment coupons to make remitting payment for coverage accurate and easy.
Q.- We are replacing our standard group health plan with ICHRA coverage. Do we have to offer COBRA to individuals who lose ICHRA coverage for a COBRA qualifying event?
Q.- Do we have to mail our COBRA Initial Rights Notice to employees or can we distribute it as part of our benefits enrollment package?
Q.- A terminated employee declined our COBRA coverage because he quit for another job. He worked that new job for a week and then quit. He did not have health coverage at the new
Q.- We just completed a dependent audit and found several dependents who were wrongly enrolled in our health coverage. When we remove the dependents, do we have to offer them
BAS, through its affiliated company Cobra Control Services, is deeply invested in providing COBRA services and ensuring accurate COBRA compliance.
Q.- If a company is new, is it subject to COBRA this year? They would have had 0 employees for 50% of 2023.
COBRA and USERRA each provide options for continuing health coverage upon certain loss of coverage events.
Q.- An employee dropped her husband from health coverage at our open enrollment. Now the husband is asking to continue his coverage under COBRA. Should we have sent him a COBRA
Collecting premium payments for benefits provided during FMLA leave does not have to be a challenge.
Q.- We give employees a choice of paying for medical coverage with after-tax money during an FMLA leave or reimbursing us for premiums when they return from leave. An employee
MyEnroll360 offers quick and easy access to COBRA qualifying event letters, streamlining benefits management for HR.
Q.- We are changing COBRA vendors September 1 and we just offered a former employee COBRA coverage. Do we have to give the full election period since we are changing vendors? We
Q.- We just discovered that two employees were enrolled in our health coverage effective 1/1/2024 but they did not elect to be covered. Our HR admin sent their information to our
Q.- Our company is based in the United Kingdom. We have a small U.S. workforce of 8 employees. Do we need to offer someone COBRA when they terminate employment since fewer than 20
Q.- Does a COBRA disability extension apply to dental and vision coverage, or is it for medical/Rx only?
Q.- We have an employee assistance plan (EAP) for our employees. Do we have to offer employees the right to continue participating in the EAP under COBRA?
Q.- We conducted a dependent eligibility audit and found about 30 people who were enrolled in our health plan as a dependent but didn’t meet the plan’s eligibility requirements.
When administering COBRA, it is important to have a trusted partner who knows the COBRA rules and requirements.
How long does a former employee have to pay for COBRA coverage? An individual who is eligible for COBRA has 60 days to elect COBRA and 45 days from the date...
Under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), group health plans are required to provide covered employees and their families with detailed notices...
Q.- A person is enrolled in a group health plan with Company A for many years and then gets a second job with Company B and enrolls in their group health plan as well (having dual
Q.- A COBRA continuant wants to extend her 18 months of COBRA due to divorce, but she didn’t tell us about the divorce until her 18 months of COBRA is finishing. Do we have to let
Q.- We are revising our health plan eligibility requirements and will no longer cover domestic partners. Do we have to offer a COBRA election to the covered domestic partners who
Q:- If a member exhausts COBRA, how long do they have to enroll onto their new employer’s medical plan (assuming the waiting period was satisfied)?
of their retirement benefits such as medical, dental, vision, life insurance and other benefits, BAS’ retiree premium billing provides all the services you need to...
Q.- We are struggling with how we are to know when dependents turn 26 and lose coverage under our health plan. Are we required to track dependent ages and provide COBRA notices to
Employers should make certain their COBRA notices do not intimidate or mislead continuants.
Q.- Do we need to send a COBRA notice to an employee’s child who turns age 26 and ages out of our plan? The employee clearly knows our plan’s eligibility requirements and knows
COBRA, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, ensures individuals covered by employer group health coverage are able to continue that coverage upon the...
- Are third parties allowed to pay for someone’s COBRA coverage? - There are no restrictions on who can pay the premium for COBRA coverage.
Q.- We know if our Health FSA meets certain requirements and if a terminating employee has been reimbursed from his FSA more than the amount he has to contribute for the rest of
Q.- Do we have to send a COBRA notice to an employee’s son who turned 26 and can no longer be covered under our medical plan?
Employers should know their ACA compliance responsibilities for COBRA continuants.
Everything you need in the cloud for COBRA administration & compliance notifications, premium billing and collection, so you can concentrate on your business and leave the rest to
Q.- We contribute to an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Account for our employees to purchase their own health coverage. Do we have to offer COBRA for the benefit?
Q.- We just hired 4 employees this week and now we have 23 employees. Before this week we never had more than 19 employees. One employee also quit. Do we have to offer that
Q.- We have an employee going on FMLA leave. Do we give her a COBRA notice when she takes her leave?
Q.- Our former employee and her child were offered COBRA coverage. The employee declined coverage but the child elected and became a qualified beneficiary. The child had 18 months
MyEnroll360 provides quick access to COBRA or Continuation of Coverage qualifying event letters.
When does an employer have to give a COBRA Initial Rights Notice? Group health plans must give each employee and spouse a general notice describing COBRA...
Q.- We heard that we need to tell COBRA participants of a rate change at least 30 days before the change goes into effect. Is that correct?
Q.- A terminated employee who is eligible for COBRA coverage told us he had COVID-19 on the last day of his election period. Does the government require us to give him more time
Q.- We have a COBRA participant who also has Medicare (he was enrolled in Medicare before his COBRA qualifying event). Does our plan pay primary benefits for him or does Medicare
From saving time and money to ensuring compliance and providing great customer service, learn how BAS’s Cobra Control Services can enhance your benefits program through COBRA
Q.- We provided the wrong premium amount on our COBRA notice to a terminating employee. We don’t think he is going to elect COBRA anyway. Should we fix the error?
Missed COBRA Notice for Terminated Employee? Act Now to Avoid Penalties. Send Notice ASAP, Start 18-month Period from Sending Date. Learn More.
Stay compliant with HR and group insurance regulations. Learn about the restart of COBRA timeframes and how CCS can assist you. Contact us today!
Learn about charging COBRA continuants in HR and group insurance. Understand the 2% administrative fee and Department of Labor guidelines. Stay informed!