Davevic Compliance Services

Employers with twenty or more employees providing health insurance benefits must offer a temporary extension of the Company's group insurance coverage when an Employee (or covered Dependent) experiences a Qualifying Event. Since COBRA is a temporary extension, benefits remain identical to that of a similarly-situated active Employee. The Participant is responsible for paying the group's premium (plus a small administration fee) and the Administrator is responsible for reimbursing the Insurer. COBRA continuation coverage offers individuals increased time to obtain new coverage and should not be viewed as a permanent plan.

Virtually all Group Health Plans are subject to COBRA with the exception of "small employer plans," church group plans and federal government plans. A "small employer" is defined as an entity where fewer than twenty employees are employed on the typical business day during the previous calendar year. When calculating the total number of employees, part-time employees should be calculated as a percentage of a full-time employee and all employees must be included (even if they are not on the Group Health Plan).

As a third party administrator, we perform the following services for our COBRA clients:

• Initial COBRA Notification
• Rights mailing
• Election form mailing for each qualifying event
• Certificate of Creditable coverage -- as required under HIPAA 96
• Acknowledgment of elected coverage
• Monthly premium billing
• Verification of accuracy and timeliness of payment
• Manage of secondary events
• Administer Medicare disability
• New Plan Notification
• Termination notifications

Mini-COBRA, or Act 2 of 2009, is a law in Pennsylvania that gives employees of small businesses (2-19 employees) who receive health insurance from their employers the right to purchase continuation health insurance after they leave employment. It allows eligible employees and dependents to purchase health insurance for nine months after their employment ends.

Mini-COBRA is modeled after the federal COBRA law, but with some important differences. The federal COBRA law allows employees at larger businesses (20 or more employees) to purchase continuation health coverage after they leave employment for 18 months (or, in some cases, 36 months) after their employment ends. Pennsylvania’s Mini-COBRA applies to employees of smaller businesses (2-19 employees) and it is for a shorter length of time (nine months).

Covered employees and their eligible dependents who lose group health insurance coverage through a small employer as a result of a "qualifying event" are eligible for Mini-COBRA continuation coverage. The covered employees and eligible dependents must have been continuously insured under the group policy or for similar benefits under any group policy which it replaced, for three consecutive months ending with the employee’s termination.