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Cobra Insurance

Healthcare Cost Strategies - COBRA

How many times have you had a Student-athlete show up on campus with an insurance card in hand and come to find out that the card is no longer valid after an injury occurs? In most cases you will find the card was once active, but the student-athlete lost coverage at some point and the card is no longer valid. When this happens, a step you could take to control expenses is to elect COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) on that student-athlete. COBRA is a continuation of coverage benefit enacted by the federal government in 1985. This act allows for continuation of coverage on a group medical plan should coverage be lost due to a qualifying event. By electing COBRA, you could take a large claim and have the costs picked up under primary coverage rather than having all the cost gone toward your secondary insurance. There are specific rules and timeframes as to when this can be done, but the bottom-line is that anyone person can elect COBRA for anyone. The cost of electing COBRA on a large claim and paying for the premiums for the duration of the injury will be far less expensive than paying for the entire injury and having the claim go against your loss runs.

We have to be diligent in our work today to contain costs!

Certifying Insurance

Healthcare Cost Containment Strategies - Immediate Verification of Benefits

The second part of this example is that the student-athlete gave you the insurance card and it was never really an active card to start with. Therefore any injury that occurs will result in you paying more than you had planned on paying. If you are a school that requires coverage in order to play, you should be immediately verifying those cards each time you are given one and should also be checking all cards on a regular basis to look for any loss in coverage. There are companies that can do this for you. The cost of doing this step could save you thousands of dollars each time you catch a case where coverage is lost or no longer valid. By taking this step you will know what your exposures are and what next steps to take. Learning after the fact is the worst way to find out this information. Remember, bad news never gets better with time, so find out early.

Contact us if we can assist you and your institution in partnering with companies that provide such services.

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