Roberta Casper Watson

They can elect early, but they can revoke elections until the election due date.

I'm inclined to agree with you. I understand why the trustee wants its responsibilities to be governed solely by its document. But the same risk of liability can reasonably prompt the sponsor to want to protect things about the past and its past documents. I'd be inclined to recommend against going with that trustee (although I expect that VEBA trustees may be a little hard to find).

I agree with the prior commenter. Most plans will terminate COBRA immediately on your being covered by your new employer's plan if that new coverage starts after you have made your COBRA election. It is possible that Anthem realized that your COBRA coverage was no longer valid, and they may refuse to process your claims at all on that coverage. COB with COBRA and another plan only makes sense when your other coverage was already in place before you made your COBRA election. In that case, I would agree that the participant/dependent rule applies.

The MEWA acronym stands for Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangement. The hospital is not doing that in its capacity as an employer, so there's no MEWA issue. Also, I've never heard any suggestion that the practice constitutes the business of insurance. And there's nothing in COBRA that restricts who can pay the premiums.

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