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Changes At Renewal |
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If staying with
the same insurance carrier,
employers may make these changes
only at plan renewal. These
include:
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Plans offered
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Employee wait
period, including key personnel
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Can change to
broad domestic partner coverage
for Blue Shield plans (coverage
defaults to narrow, i.e.
opposite sex, or over age 62
with state registration)
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Allowing/removing
coverage for part-time (20-29
hours/week) employees Note:
Carriers define full-time
coverage as 30+ hours/week
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Changes Anytime |
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Employers are
free to make the following
changes at any time:
- Moving to a
new carrier
- Adding new
coverage types, e.g. vision,
dental, life, LTD
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Qualifying Events:
Graduation & Divorce/Legal
Separation |
Change can happen
anytime. Some changes, like
graduations, are seasonal.
Others, such as divorce or legal
separation, can happen anytime.
Both result in the spouse or
child losing group
plan eligibility and becoming
eligible for COBRA or Cal-COBRA
continuation coverage.
Employees or their
dependents are responsible for
notifying you, the
employer (or the plan
administrator), of the
qualifying event: graduation (i.e.loss
of dependent child status) or
divorce/legal separation from
the employee within 60 days of
the event.
Employees may not be aware
they need to notify you of
these changes or be focused on
other things during the
transition. It's a good idea
to send out or post general
reminders to employees
periodically.
Shargel & Co. is available to
help determine whether (Cal-)
COBRA or an individual plan
make more sense for the person
losing group coverage.
Read our newsletter about COBRA
and Cal-COBRA.
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