Recent COBRA changes

[Guest SPiwowar]

What are the most recent COBRA law changes? COBRA has to be offered to employees on Medicare - what are the details? Are there any other changes? Where is there a good place to find these types of changes to the COBRA law?

[Guest jreddi]

As always the best place to look for definitive info re: COBRA is Thompson Publishing (www.thompson.com) in their Mandated Health Benefits book.

Here is my understanding of the changes, as such a reinterpretation, of the COBRA laws as decided by the Supreme Court on 8 Jun 98 in GEISSAL v. MOORE MEDICAL GROUP:

The Court held that an employer may not deny COBRA continuation coverage under its health plan to an otherwise eligible QB because he already is covered under another group plan at the time he elects COBRA continuation.

This decision hinges on the "plain language" of the law, rather than on subsequent IRS regulations (See Q&A38 of the regs). The law stipulates the continuation coverage will cease on the earliest of (in addition to three other points which are not germane to this thread): "the date on which the qualified beneficiary FIRST BECOMES, AFTER THE DATE OF ELECTION, (i) covered under any other group health plan (an as employee or otherwise)..., or (ii) entitled to Medicare benefits. (Emphasis added.)

While this doesn't specifically point to Medicage coverage as a group health plan or to a person who is entitled to Medicare on the date of the qualifying event, I suspect that the case and the statute will be interpreted to allow a person with a pre-ex Medicare coverage to have both Medicare and COBRA continuation coverage.

Basically what the Court is saying is that if a QB elects COBRA by is already covered under another group plan (including, as it seems, Medicare)on the election date, he or she is still eligible for COBRA coverage. If, however, the QB BECOMES covered under another group plan or BECOMES entitled to Medicare AFTER s/he elects COBRA, only then can COBRA coverage be discontinued.

This does not change the language of the COBRA law, so the ERISA requirement of updating SPDs should not come into play. The last sentence was not a legal opinion and you should ask your in house counsel or a labor atttorney's opinion on this.