Changing Ins. Companies

[Guest motor]

This might seem a lame question but I'll torture you with it anyways.

If an employer offers more than one carrier for an insurance,can a COBRA participant change carriers? If so, are there any limitations put on this?

Thanks for any info.

Motor

[jeanine]

Off the top of my head I can think of two times when they can do this. If you have open enrollment season COBRA participants can change carriers in the same manner as active employees. Also, if the COBRA beneficiary moves out of the service area, and there is another carrier that services that area I believe you have to let them switch.

[mroberts]

motor:

employee can also change health plans if you are changing health carriers at any point.

if however, they want to change plans once they are terminated, they can not, unless as jeanine indicated, they are moving to a different area.

something tells me that you should touch base with your carrier on this one since medical communities differ greatly from region to region.

matt

[KIP KRAUS]

I don’t think changing Carriers is an automatic reason to let a COBRA participant change plans. An employer can change carriers and not change benefits, in which case I don’t believe COBRA participants can change because of this.

[mroberts]

Kip:

I agree. I basically meant that if the old plan is entirely going away and several new options from a different carrier are being put in, this would be justification. However, if you are changing from a BCBS $15 Copay HMO to a United Health Care $15 Copay HMO, then no, that doesn't allow for an automatic change.

Matt