What is Cobra Administration?
Congress passed the landmark Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) health benefit provisions in 1986. The law amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the internal Revenue Code and the Public Health Service Act to provide continuation of group health coverage and other benefits that otherwise might have been lost.
What does COBRA do?
COBRA provides certain former employees, retirees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage and certain other benefits at group rates. This coverage, however, is only available when coverage is lost due to certain specific events.
Outline of Services
Initial Consultation: Whether your employer has COBRA participants or not, HRC will take the time necessary to develop the best procedure to handle the transition of current COBRA participants and notification of new COBRA eligible employees. We will integrate with your existing process and implement our procedures, which you customize, to keep your companies in compliance.
Current COBRA Participants: After all the procedures are outlined, HRC will send all current COBRA participants a letter detailing who we are and where they are to send their payments. Along with this letter will be a new coupon booklet or invoice for remittance of premiums.
New Hire Letter update: Regulation requires that newly hired employees need to receive notification that they are cobra/HIPAA eligible in the event that they are terminated or have a qualifying event. If your companies currently use a letter for new hires, we will review it to make sure it is in compliance. If a company prefers, HRC will design and provide a new hire letter for COBRA/HIPAA eligibility notification.
COBRA Technology Platform
The HRC COBRA administration technology platform is used by administrators supporting tens of thousands of employers and hundreds of thousands of COBRA participants. This system has a robust web-based interface that allows a host of useful features including:
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COBRA participant online account access available 24/7
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COBRA participant online credit card / debit card payment of COBRA premiums
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COBRA participant ability to elect to pay premiums by scheduled ACH
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Employer direct entry of qualifying events and new hires eliminating the need to complete paper forms to notify us of qualifying events and new hires.
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Robust accounting feature to track employer and ARRA subsidies
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Posted and adjusted Remittance Reports to ensure and fully communicate to you accurate management of premiums
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Employer online account access and reporting available 24/7
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Real-time access to extensive library of reports available 24/7
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Our COBRA Administration system will also provide a robust platform for HRC to effectively administer COBRA in the now ever changing legislative landscape demonstrated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) as continually amended.
Employee Communications
New Hire Letter: HRC will provide a new hire letter for each employer. You have a choice of either HRC mailing this letter for all new hires or you can provide it to them with the rest of their new hire literature/benefit information.
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Terminated Employee COBRA Notification Letter: Upon notification of termed employee, HRC will send out a COBRA notification letter along with a HIPAA letter indicating the employee’s options.
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Acknowledgment Letter / Coupon Remittance Labels: If an employee elects COBRA, then HRC will send an acknowledgment letter indicating the acceptance along with coupon remittance labels for the employee to use for submitting their premiums each month.
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Termination Letter: If an employee fails to make their premium payments, then HRC will send the COBRA participant a letter indicating the termination of their benefit plan. This letter will also be sent at the end of the COBRA eligibility period.