Plan sponsors are probably sick of hearing plan professionals harp on the importance of having and following COBRA procedures, but a recent court case again emphasized the point. An employee sued his health plan stating that he did not receive a COBRA notice. It could have become a he said versus what the plan said situation, instead, the plan received summary judgment. The court found that since the plan had well- documented COBRA procedures, the employer did send the COBRA election notice.
The procedures in place included:
Proper coding of COBRA eligibility
Documented information transfers between the plan and the COBRA administrator
Records of generating and printing notices
Plans should continue to comply with and frequently improve their COBRA procedures.