Administering COBRA

[Guest eazycool]

Recently I was asked the following questions by a former participant in one of the plans we do pension administration for, "Can my previous employer cancell my COBRA insurance without notifying me?" The way this came about was, the employee needed to cut back on some of his hours worked, so he asked the owner if this was ok. The owner was fine with it for about a month and then told the employee that he held prime shifts that should be offered to new employees and that he either had to give up the shifts or quit. The employee had been there for 8 years and felt he had earned those shifts and that it would be as if he was starting over if he gave them up so he decided to quit. Upon resigning, the ee joined the COBRA Plan. Everything was fine for about 5 months. The ee recently received a letter in the mail from the health insurance company letting him know that his insurance was cancelled a month ago. Upon calling his prior employer, he was told by the owner that he never received his payment so they dropped him. The ee informed me that the check was sent. The owner advised him that he would call the insurance company to see if he could be reinstated. The ee also called the insurance company. The insurance company advised him that it was not a problem and that this happens often and that he could be reinstated. However, upon following up with the employer, he was told that the insurance company denied the reinstatement. It was not until the ee told the employer that he also talked to the insurance company and that they said there was no problem getting him back on the plan that the employer agreed to get him reinstated for the remaining remedial time.

He is being reinstated but he is afraid the employer might not be honest in the future since he was not honest about contacting the insurance company. I personally only do DB administration, so any advice would help. Thanks!

[Guest OSU]

I would just recommend that this person send payments in a way that he can prove it was sent (ie: FedEx, UPS, certified mail, etc.).

[Guest b2kates]

I agree. there should always be a trail that can be proven so that there is not question of the payment.