Helpful 2019 Information about COBRA Status

2019 is the time to check your 2018 payroll records to determine your COBRA status for calendar year 2019

Dealey, Renton & Associates (DRA)  pays for COBRA administration by a third party or provides COBRA administration software from OnQue if you wish to administer COBRA internally. 

To take advantage of this COBRA benefit, clients must be subject to Federal-COBRA and DRA must handle their Employee Benefits program.

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If you employed 20 or more employees for over half of the work days in 2018, you are subject to Federal COBRA for ALL of 2019. 

California-based employers with 2-19 employees (for over half of the workdays of the prior calendar year) are subject to Cal-COBRA.

Your COBRA status cannot change during the calendar year and is determined entirely by the number of persons you paid last year, not by the number of employees currently enrolled on your medical plans.

Cal-COBRA
Under Cal-COBRA, insurance carriers send the notifications, however, you must notify them of all qualifying events including death, divorce, and loss of dependent status.  If you have questions about Cal-COBRA procedures, please call the number on your billing statement.

Federal-COBRA
Employers (not insurers) are responsible for Federal-COBRA administration.  You have the choice of handling administration yourself or outsourcing it to a COBRA vendor.  Federal COBRA notifications are several pages long and must be mailed (not hand delivered) to terminating (or otherwise qualifying) beneficiaries.

Employers are responsible for reporting all COBRA events to either their insurers (Cal-COBRA) or to their COBRA administrator (Federal-COBRA). 

If you are subject to Federal COBRA for the first time on January 1, 2019, or need additional information, please contact our Employee Benefits Department at 800.545.3090

or email us at:   
DRAbenefits@dealeyrenton.com