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New Second Chance Election for State Continuation
In previous e-mails we discussed a Federal law passed in February (ARRA) that gave employees who were involuntarily terminated a second chance to elect COBRA and to possibly receive a 65% COBRA premium subsidy. Originally, those eligible for State Continuation were not given a second chance to elect. As you may know, State Continuation applies to groups with less than 20 employees, COBRA 20 or more.
On June 1 Colorado passed HB-1349 which fills this gap and gives previously terminated employees a second chance to elect State Continuation and apply for the 65% premium subsidy. The state made it the employer's responsibility to notify former employees who were involuntarily terminated (and therefore lost coverage) between September 1, 2008 and February 16, 2009. Going forward, the employer will still need to notify employees about state continuation but the carrier will be responsible for notifying them about the subsidy.
So far, neither the carriers nor the state have produced a sample notice they want sent. Therefore, based on our reading of the Act, we have created a form letter we will complete with dates and rates. We will include the election materials and send these "proof of mail" to your former employees. This is not a legal service but we feel our notice more than satisfies the notice obligations and goes well beyond what others are doing to comply with this law. We're not charging for this but treating it as a customer service. Of course you're free to create your own notice and consider this e-mail an alert to the new law.
If you want us to send our notice, what we need by June 19 is a list of the employees who were eligible for continuation and and involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008 and February 16, 2009. If you're not sure, can't remember, or don't know please call us and we'll figure it out together. This needs to be done ASAP. The employee's election period starts only when the letter is mailed, then they have 60 days to elect.
As always, please feel free to call us if you have any questions or concerns.
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