COBRA Notifications

Rockie

If an employee elects COBRA and then they leave the area and do not leave a forwarding address and your notices come back, how far must you go, as an employer, to try to locate these people? I say it is the employee's responsibility to give you an accurate, up to date address and it is not the job of the employer to be a private investigator to try to track people down. Are there any "rules" regarding how far you have to go with this?

Also, we merged with another medical group and they changed over to our benefits the first of the year. One employee's spouse, who she separated from in November, now wants to be covered by her through COBRA. The former company denies responsibility, so I would assume that he would have to go through our insurance since there was no break in service. Is this correct?

Thanks for your input.

bsa

I am assuming that you have not received COBRA payment -- so you make a good faith effort to locate this person by sending a notice of cancellation in 30 days for lack of payment, either with a certificate of mailing or certified mail. Keep the returned mail in the file and cancel the insurance. If by some chance it gets delivered, they have 30 days to get caught up on their payments or you cancel.

If responsibility to continue coverage was not addressed in the merger contract, the buying entity is usually responsible. In this case, did the former company begin the COBRA process when the couple separated? If yes, check the date of notification to determine where you are in the timeline. If no, begin the process right away through your insurance. Good luck.