(Not So) New COBRA Notice Requirements
So why am I writing about the "new" COBRA notice requirements which aren't so new any more? I'm finding that a fair number of people don't know what I'm talking about when I mention this. For those who don't, here's the story....
In May of last year, the DOL issued final regulations under COBRA. Calendar year plans are required to comply by January 1, 2005. Generally, the new regulations set forth the details of specific notice requirements that plan administrators are to provide to qualified beneficiaries, that employers are required to provide to plan administrators and that qualified beneficiaries are required to provide to the plan administrator. They specifically identify two additional notices that are now required and provide two model notices which can be adopted for your particular plan. Old model notices are no longer compliant.
Many employers who use outside third party administrators may be thinking they have nothing to do, but these new regulations will require changes to SPD and provides detail on the requirements of employers to notify plan administrators or third party COBRA administrator when they learn of qualifying events. For the real nitty gritty, go right to the regulations. For a more user-friendly explanation, go here and here. For MS Word version of the two Model Notices (which obviously must be tailored to the organization) go here. I'll be doing a seminar on these regulations for LISTnet on Long Island in February.
