COBRASecureSM

What is COBRA?

COBRA is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. It is a federal law that requires employers to provide intermediate health coverage from the time an employee loses his or her coverage until he or she obtains other insurance coverage or the intermediate coverage expires.

COBRASecure^SM Retiree Billing handles the administration of employees who remain enrolled in an employer’s health plan after retirement, but is meant for employers who do not need the complete services of COBRASecure Retiree Administration. We mail premium notices, collect and disburse premium payments, and manage premium rate changes.

How COBRASecure works

COBRASecure continues participants’ health insurance coverage in situations where it would otherwise end. It could end due to termination of employment, a leave of absence, a divorce, the loss of dependent status or some other situation.
Take this as an example.
Bruce had worked for Acme Widgets for two years when the company broke the news that it was cutting his position. Without a quick back-up plan or another form of health coverage, he needed a different option.
Acme Widgets notified Employee Benefits Corporation of Bruce’s termination, and subsequently offered him continuation coverage through COBRASecure.
To enroll in COBRASecure, Bruce simply signed an Election Agreement that he received in the mail from Employee Benefits Corporation. The program was in place – it stabilized and comforted Bruce during a tumultuous time since it allowed him to continue his current health coverage while he looked for a new job and waited for new benefits to take effect. He received simple coupons to remind him of each monthly premium payment, and sent his checks to Employee Benefits Corporation to keep the COBRA coverage going as long as it was necessary.

Why employers should choose COBRASecure

COBRASecure ensures 100 percent compliance with all COBRA regulations and, in turn, minimizes potential liability for employers. COBRASecure also reduces business overhead, helps to streamline HR administration and frees the employer’s staff from having to meet COBRA deadlines and monitor ongoing COBRA compliance changes. In addition to responsive employer and participant support teams and our in-house Compliance team’s understanding of continuation regulations, Employee Benefits Corporation makes COBRASecure worth businesses’ while for other reasons.

1. Smooth takeover of existing continuation participants: Employee Benefits Corporation works closely with the employer’s staff to ensure that all existing continuation participants smoothly transition into the COBRASecure system. We contact each participant by letter and explain the conversion to the COBRASecure system. The participant learns about how COBRASecure works and how to contact us should they have questions.
2. Open communication with insurance carriers: We communicate with the employer’s insurance company when employees elect continuation coverage and make the initial premium payment. We provide enrollment and termination information to the employer’s insurance company to ensure participants’ coverage is reinstated or terminated as appropriate.
3. Compliance monitoring: Extensive COBRA regulations govern our administration processes under COBRASecure. Our in-house Compliance team ensures that COBRASecure is in line with all the latest regulations and that our clients are fully informed of important regulatory developments.
4. COBRA-compliant notices: Over 50 percent of the current court cases involving COBRA compliance violations stem from COBRA notices, whether the notice content is not compliant, the notice is incorrectly issued, or the notice is simply not provided. COBRASecure provides COBRA-compliant notices to applicable individuals in each of the various situations that require them.

COBRASecure and COBRASecure State Continuation Administration
COBRASecure and COBRASecure State Continuation Administration include the following services.

• Initial Notices for newly eligible employees
• Takeover of existing continuation participants
• Issuance of qualifying event notices
• Issuance of premium coupons
• Management and collection of premiums
• Monthly payments and reports to employers
• Notification of premium rate changes for participants
• A complete documents archive
• Monitoring of all COBRA and State Continuation time lines