Groom principal Christine Keller was quoted by the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”) in the article, “What Exactly Are ‘Mini-Cobra’ Laws?” where she discussed state regulated COBRA laws, or Mini-COBRA, and how state-level continuation coverage laws compare to federal COBRA requirements.
“You can almost think of it as two separate circles,” said Keller, “There’s mini-COBRA and there’s federal COBRA, and they don’t really intersect.”
Regarding states that don’t have COBRA laws, Keller said, “In those cases…probably the individuals who lose coverage will wind up purchasing an individual policy on their own or go to the exchange.”
“They all start as laws that are similar to [federal] COBRA,” she added, “but then each state will have its own little twist.”
SHRM reported that, according to Keller, “companies must ‘pay attention to the details of the timing of the notices, the content of the notices, and to make sure that individuals understand their rights before it becomes an issue.’”
The platform further reported that Keller added that “COBRA is one of the most litigated areas of benefits law, so it is in employers’ best interest to take their time getting comfortable with compliance. A mistake can be as simple as forgetting to send out notices or a file getting lost in transit. The remedy is ‘always to send the notice…Otherwise, you have a potential liability out there.’”
“For the most part,” Keller said, “states have focused on making sure there’s coverage available through the marketplace and exchange.”
To read the article, click here.