COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) is a regulation that many employers and employees have questions about.

COBRA allows employees and their families who have lost health care benefits due to a qualifying event the opportunity to continue the benefits offered by their group health plan. In this situation a qualifying event could be voluntary or involuntary job loss, reduction in the hours worked, transition between jobs, death, or divorce. Employees who qualify for COBRA may be required to pay the entire premium for their health benefits.

COBRA only affects those employers with 20 or more employees. Employers with less than 20 employees are not required to offer any continuation of health care coverage.

Employers are responsible for notifying COBRA eligible employees within 30 days of a qualifying event. Individuals then have 60 days to elect benefits and 45 days after electing benefits to pay their first premium.

For more information about COBRA please visit the Department of Labor website or contact the benefits department at A Plus Benefits.

Samantha Bushard is an HR employee for the Idaho office of A Plus Benefits Inc.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 7:28 am and is filed under Benefits, Human Resources, Termination. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.