LOA, no-call, no-show and Cobra

marc

Here is the situation. An EE, short of the 1250 hours and the 1 year FMLA eligibility requirements applies for, and is granted, a 30 day post pregnancy leave of absence.

She is notified that she will have to pay for health and life insurance, which are normally company paid benefits, for the month of March. We gave her the option ahead of time to either take these dollars out of paychecks before the leave started or to pay the amount in full on the first of March. She never responded to either option, so we sent her a bill (certified mail) for the insurances at the end of February and gave her till March 3rd to make the payment. No payment has arrived and she is not answering her phone.

I am about to send her a letter cancelling her insurance.

Her date to return to work was March 8th. We have a 2 day no-call, no-show that is considered a self-termination. She had called her supervisor during the leave indicating she may not return.

So we term her under the no-call, no-show policy. Does she have Cobra rights? How about the newborn, does he/she have Cobra rights.

HRQ

Great question, Marc. I don't know the answer and am interested to see what the others have to say. With so many women in our company having babies every year, I'm sure this will come up for us eventually.

irenesmsaclaims

If you terminate her coverage effective as of the paid-to date of March 1, then she would not have been covered on the day before the qualifying event (March 10); therefore, she would have no COBRA rights, nor would the baby (not covered on the day before the qualifying event because the mother wasn't covered).