Cobra General Notice

System

When an employee become eligible and signs up for Insurance - I send out a Cobra General Notice. Do I need to send this General Notice out to each employee at the beginning of each new year?? We do not have a newsletter to put the notice in. I could post it on our employee bulletin board.


Spoden

stilldazed

I just attended a seminar last week that had a segment dedicated to Cobra notifications. The message was that the general notice upon enrollment must go to enrolled employees and covered dependents (similar to the continuation notification). Likewise, if an employee adds a covered dependent after having single coverage, a general notice must go to the spouse. There need not be a mass distribution to all employees each time someone enrolls. Part of the message also included that a practice could be adopted to issue periodic general updates (such as during open enrollment) to all covered employees reminding them about potential Cobra opportunities. Again, however, if employees enroll for the first time during an open enrollment, the general notification requirement (above) applies.

There is a new notice, referred to in the seminar as the "Plan Administrator's Notice"--"notice of unavailable (ineligibility) of Cobra coverage upon notice by an employee or dependent, and notice of impending early termination of Cobra coverage w/reasons for termination."