Retiring Employee on Medicare now, Cobra?

HR in Okla · July 2002

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-08-02 AT 09:26AM (CST)[/font][p]I'm having difficulty interpreting the relationship between COBRA and Medicare. A 70 year old is retiring. He is on the company insurance as primary and Medicare has been secondary. Do I need to offer COBRA? Does his eligibility for Medicare make him ineligible for COBRA?

Our retiree insurance benefit is not available after medicare eligibility, so that's not an issue.

Need an answer ASAP.

moneyman · July 2002

I know that this has been kicked around before, but I believe a major court decision came out last year that clarified (or tried to) that someone already on Medicare was still supposed to be offered COBRA. The regulations stated that when a person becomes entitled to Medicare AFTER electing COBRA was the issue.

I would certainly check with your benefits attorney on this one.

Dottie · July 2002

I am unaware of any statutes covering this issue, however, it would seem to me that the right to elect COBRA would be similar to electing any other "gap" type coverage, since Medicare leaves so much uncovered.

Rodney · July 2002

I would add a question to this. If the spouse is not of Medicare age, can s/he use COBRA for the interim?

Mary
IL

bsa · July 2002

If the spouse was covered by your policy before retirement, then the spouse is entitled to COBRA... 18 months, unless another qualifying event occurs.

HR in Okla · July 2002

Thanks, to answer the sub-question added to this. The employee qualifying for Medicare is a "qualifying event" for his/her spouse, so there's no question the spouse would qualify for COBRA. It was our retiring person I was concerned about.

I posed the question to the info. center at SHRM and the answer was an unqualified "YES", you must offer COBRA to anyone losing health insurance due to termination of employment regardless of their age or medicare status.

Retiring Employee on Medicare now, Cobra?

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