Attention faculty, staff with dependents: COBRA benefit continuation rights notice
From Human Resources
Do you have a child graduating from college in May, graduating from high school and not planning to enter college in the fall, taking more than one term off from full-time college? If so, that child will no longer qualify as a dependent for purposes of medical, dental and vision coverage. To ensure that your child is not without coverage, contact Steph Monogue, (651) 962-6519, in the Human Resources Benefits Department for assistance.
Federal and state laws require you to notify the Human Resources Department within 60 days of the “qualifying event.” For dependent children, qualifying events include (but are not limited to) attaining age 19, or upon attaining age 25 if the dependent is a full-time student. NOTE: Other events also require you to take action, but this article is addressing only the loss of dependent status issue.
When notifying us of a change in your child’s dependent status, please include your child’s current mailing address and social security number. ARC (UST’s COBRA administrator), will mail COBRA papers to your child, which explains his or her rights to continue health care coverage Specifically, the federal and state laws allow the child losing dependent status the opportunity to continue medical, dental and vision coverage for up to 36 months at their own cost. Failure to provide St. Thomas proper notice within 60 days of a qualifying event will result in the forfeiture of the child’s rights to continue coverage.
Dependent Optional Life Insurance, which is provided through UnumProvident, covers dependents up to age 19 or up to age 26 if a full-time student. If you have elected this coverage, please review the situation with your child and have him or her decide whether he or she wants to continue coverage. Optional Life Insurance continuation options, if applicable, will be included in the COBRA paperwork. You are able to continue coverage for your other remaining dependents, as long as they remain eligible for the coverage.
Please note that there are a number of employee notification responsibilities. If you are unfamiliar with these, please go to the Human Resources Department Web page, or contact one of the Benefits Team members of HR for a copy of the COBRA Notice. This notice outlines various actions you must take upon the occurrence of certain events.
Please feel free to contact Steph Monogue, (651) 962-6219, or Pete Ronza, (651) 962-6521.
