Spouse's enrollment to Cafe Plan from COBRA

[Guest CLRanger]

An employee who made insurance and FSA elections at the beginning of the plan year in January would now like to enroll his spouse. The spouse lost her job in March and took COBRA at that time. Now the employee wants to enroll her in insurance and increase his FSA election.

My initial reaction was that the spouse cannot be enrolled because the qualifying event took place 3 months ago, but I am not sure if moving from COBRA would make a difference.

Thanks for the help - I am new to the industry and can use it!

[Guest lmrice]

Your initial thought is correct. The spouse needs to wait until open enrollment to be added to the employee's coverage. Currently, there is no qualifying event to allow changes. Moving from COBRA does not qualify.