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Insurance cancelled before I can sign up for COBRA?

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Frippledip

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? California

I quit my job at the end of January (around the 27th) and now that it is March 19, I just discovered that my insurance was cancelled on 3/1. I had always planned on continuing coverage through COBRA, but I never received any information on it. I called my former employer, Pearson VUE, who told me that they notify employees about COBRA through some 3rd party called "Benefit Concepts". They told me that COBRA information was sent to me yesterday. My question is very simple...I would like to know if it is legal and/or common practice for an employer to terminate insurance before I officially receive COBRA info? Shouldn't I have at least been notified that I was cancelled? I understand that I am still eligible for COBRA, and when I do sign up, coverage will be retroactive to 3/1, but if I need medical treatment tomorrow, why should I have to pay out of my own pocket and then get reimbursed? At the very least this is morally wrong, but I would like to know if Pearson has broken the law. I am very upset that my insurance was cancelled without my notification. THIS IS WRONG!
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
It is absolutely legal and entirely common for an employer to cancel coverage before you receive the COBRA info. Under the law, they have up to 44 days to send you the COBRA information; you have 60 days to make your election and from the day you make your election, whatever day that is, you have 45 days to send in your first check. If they were not allowed to cancel your coverage until then, and you didn't send in your election or your check (and believe me, it happens) they could be on the hook for almost five months of claims that they'd never get paid for.

However, once you make your election and send in your first payment, coverage will be reinstated retroactively to 3/1. That is also part of the COBRA statute. So you won't have lost anything.

I hope you realize that if you quit in January and they carried your coverage until March 1, that is extremely generous and far more than they have to do.
 

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