COBRA Notice

[Guest ooota]

Consider the following factual scenario:

An employee was terminated in September 2002, but due to an administrative error, the administrator did not provide a COBRA notice until October 2003. In the October 2003 COBRA notice, the Company notified the employee that it would continue to provide the employee coverage until the end of October 2003 because of the Company's administrative error. Does this factual scenario provide for a claim of a violation of the COBRA notice requirements?

Thank you in advance for your help!

[Guest asire2002]

A qualifying event COBRA notice must generally be provided within 44 days of the qualifying event. However, if actual loss of coverage occurs later than the date of the qualifying event, and if the plan so provides, notice can still be provided timely if it is provided within 44 days of the loss of coverage. Further, if there is no loss of coverage during the maximum coverage period, no notice is arguably required at all. There was a recent case on this point, Willams v. Teamsters Local Union No. 727, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Dkt. No. 03 C 2122, October 22, 2003). You may be okay.

[mroberts]

Agreed. The employer noticed the error and corrected it by extending the coverage another month. The employer sent the notice within the 14 or 44 days so all seems fine to me.