COBRA

njjel · July 2008

I wanted to clear up a disagreement we are having here at work. How many days do we as the employer have to send out the COBRA paperwork after an employee is terminated? We issue our own COBRA paperwork.

FunHRBanker · July 2008

If you do not use a TPA, they say 14 days. However, this is what I found out from the DOL: The Department of Labor has previously indicated that the employer who is also the plan administrator may take the 30 days plus the 14 days allowed to send out the Notice of
Election Rights; however several courts have imposed penalties against employers who are also plan administrators who do not send out the notice in 14 days.

Aurora IL · July 2008

We are the employer and plan administrator. We use a system called COBRA OnQue to help us manage all notifications and forms associated with COBRA. The system creates the notifications and lets us know when we need to send the forms.

Here is an excerpt from the help section of the software:

When an employee or dependent is added to the health plan:

Â·The employer must send the Initial Notification to covered employees and dependents within 90 days of the effective date of COBRA eligible coverage.

When a qualifying event results in the loss of coverage to an employee or dependent:

Â·The employer must notify the plan administrator of the qualifying event within 30 days.

Â·The plan administrator must notify qualified beneficiaries of their COBRA rights within 14 days of being notified of the qualifying event by the employer. When the employer and plan administrator are the same, there is a maximum notification time of 44 days, but the notice should be sent out within 14 days of the qualifying event.

Copyright Â© 1999-2002 OnQue Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NaeNae55 · August 2008

It depends on which court circuit you are in. Some courts have ruled if the employer is the plan administrator they only have 14 days, and some have ruled they have 44. You'll have to look at which circuit you are in to find out which way to do it. Unless or until a case goes to the Supreme Court we are stuck with just looking at the court history for the circuit we are in.

Good luck!

Nae

njjel · August 2008

OH lovely! So to be safe just sent it out within 14 days and we'll be safe!

Dasher · August 2008

Yes -- that's the way I play it. LOL

stilldazed · August 2008

Most all of HR work is lovely!

COBRA

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