Furloughs
Premium Collection Program for Furloughed Employees
In an effort to assist you through these difficult times, we have developed a new program through which our COBRA clients may continue their employees’ benefits and have us collect the applicable premiums. We will be running the program through our COBRA platforms for ease of administration for you all. We have outlined our process below for clients who are going through a temporary furlough, as well as for those clients who must permanently lay off portions of their workforce but who wish to offer a subsidy to the full COBRA premium.
Temporary Furlough
Coverage is maintained as an active employee; COBRA is not applicable unless payment is not received.
- Option 1: Client assumes “election” to continue coverage
- Client provides employee information and applicable premium information to ThrivePass (can be employee portion, full COBRA premium or anything in between – that is up to each client).
- ThrivePass programs a special classification to be able to track these employees separately from the COBRA population.
- ThrivePass sends a notification to furloughed employees that they will need to submit premiums to ThrivePass during the furlough period.
- Memo – customized per client, but not per employee
- Continuation Coverage Statement – customized per employee to show the specific coverages and applicable premiums.
- ThrivePass will send monthly statements for the duration of the furlough.
- ThrivePass will remit applicable premiums back to Client as part of standard COBRA reporting.
- ThrivePass DOES NOT communicate with the carrier since the client is maintaining active coverage.
- Option 2: Client requires that employee “elect” to continue coverage.
- Client provides employee information and applicable premium information to ThrivePass (can be employee portion, full COBRA premium or anything in between – that piece is up to each client).
- ThrivePass programs a special classification to be able to track these employees separately from the COBRA population.
- ThrivePass sends a notification to furloughed employees that they will need to submit premiums to ThrivePass during the furlough period.
- Letter that explains the process and requires the employee to sign a statement at the bottom of the letter and return with his or her initial monthly payment.
- Once received back from the employee, ThrivePass will send monthly statements for the duration of the furlough.
- ThrivePass will remit applicable premiums back to Client as part of standard COBRA reporting.
- ThrivePass DOES NOT communicate with the carrier since the client is maintaining active coverage.
We have developed general communications to use in either of the above situations and will work directly with each client to ensure that the communications meet your needs. Other items to consider as you are preparing for a temporary furlough, which can be incorporated into the communications, include:
- Are there non-COBRA eligible benefits that you’d like to include in the furlough and have us collect on your behalf?
- Can the employee continue certain benefits but not others (e.g. can they continue medical and dental but discontinue life/supplemental life coverages), or must they continue all benefits?
- If you will require an election, what timeframe will you offer?
- What happens if the employee does not make an election or does not make payment during the furlough period – will you retroactively terminate coverage?
Permanent Layoff / Termination of Employment
Active coverage terminates and COBRA applies, but the client wishes to subsidize the applicable COBRA premium.
- ThrivePass will provide full COBRA notification packet and include a special cover letter with the details of the special arrangement.
- ThrivePass tracks the standard election period, as well as the applicable timeframe of the reduced premium.
- ThrivePass communicates directly with carriers for reinstatement of coverage and termination of continuation coverage when applicable.
- ThrivePass provides monthly payment statements for the duration of COBRA, and updates the participant’s record to begin collecting full premiums at the end of the subsidy period.
We understand that these are difficult decisions, but rest assured that we have a framework in place to assist you with the process of notifying your employees and providing them with some level of support and assurance. Please contact us with any questions you may have.
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