Typo in Model COBRA Notice?

[Chaz]

This is the first sentence of the text of the model COBRA Election Notice as revised by the DOL to incorporate information about the availability of coverage in the Marketplace. I am copying it verbatim from the DOL website:

This notice has important information about your right to continue your health care coverage in the [enter name of group health plan] (the Plan), as well as other health coverage options that may be available to you, including coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace at www.HealthCare.gov or call 1-800-318-2596.

(The underscore/underlined text after "call" is as in the original.)

It seems to me as if there are words missing after the word "Marketplace" because the sentence does not make grammatical sense as written (although the intent of the sentence is obvious). I have not seen any discussion of this.

Has anyone encountered this? If so, what, if any changes did you make to this language when customizing it for actual use?

Thanks.

[GMK]

Since what's new in the new COBRA notice is mostly advertising for the Marketplace, we generally use the model's words when discussing the Marketplace. We focused our customization efforts on the COBRA parts.

In this paragraph, we did not add anything after "Marketplace," in part because we agree that the intention of the sentence is obvious. Even if the grammar is imperfect, we prefer wording that people will easily understand.

What did you think might be added?

[Chaz]

Well, the 800-318-2596 number for the healthcare.gov website is not referred to anywhere else in the model notice. I think it needs to be in there somewhere.

I guess the best place to include the number would be at the end of the "For more information" section ("For more information about health insurance options available through the Health Insurance Marketplace, and to locate an assister in your area who you can talk to about the different options, visit www.HealthCare.gov [OR CALL 800-318-2596.]"

Seems to be a reasonable solution but it is astounding to me that the DOL would issue such a sloppy notice.

[GMK]

Yah, we added the phone number in the For More Information section, which we load up with various contact listings (partly because there was room on the page).

I think 'they' really want everyone to use the web site. Either they don't want people to call, or they don't realize that lots of people won't put personal information on-line (or can't).

And in spite of it all, we still have more people than I would have expected opting for COBRA coverage. I thought (hoped?) that the Marketplace would move COBRA to the history books. Shows what I know.