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Many employers have questions regarding the COBRA subsidy under ARRA, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

One of the key features under the ARRA is a 65% subsidy to provide COBRA continued healthcare coverage to the unemployed.

Employers need to realize that regulations are still being written for this law that went into effect on February 17, 2009. We will continue to update employers as new regulations are published.

COBRA, of course, is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, a law that permits employees who have lost their jobs to continue their group insurance coverage for up to 18 months. COBRA also applies to dependents of ensured employees, and to employees who lose coverage because their hours have been reduced.

Only employers with 20 or more (more…)

Many employers have questions about the COBRA subsidies offered under the Obama administration’s stimulus plan, which was signed into law on February 17, 2009.

The  ARRA, or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, included a provision to subsidize extended health insurance coverage under COBRA, for some eligible employees.

The plan applies only to an “assistance eligible individual” or AEI who is laid off through no fault of his or her own, or is a dependent of a laid-off employee.

The subsidy applies beginning March 1, 2009 for employers who use calendar months for healthcare coverage.

Under the plan, the employee pays just 35% of his or her COBRA health care premium. The employer pays the other 65% of the COBRA premium. Employers can then take a tax credit (more…)

Months after the president signed the NDAA or Military Family Leave Act into law, employers are finally receiving guidelines on how to implement it.

Every employer is required to prominently display a Military Leave Notice in the workplace, under this new law.

The regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor go into effect on January 16, 2009 but employers would be wise to implement them now. This is because, unlike the updated FMLA regulations, the Military Family Leave regs are not replacements to existing regulations – they are the first and only regulations on this new type of leave.

Leave under the Military Family Leave Act is an extension of FMLA, or leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

An employee may take up to 26 weeks of military caregiver leave during a single 12-month period to care for a soldier injured on active duty. The leave can be taken (more…)

The $700 billion Wall Street bailout  recently signed by President George W. Bush also included an important provision related to employee health benefits.  

The law ensures that American workers continue to receive insurance coverage for mental health treatments, on parity with coverage for physical illness, under their group health insurance.  

A similar law in effect for the past 12 years was scheduled to expire on January 1, 2010. This measure (more…)

A new state law that permits parents to keep sons and daughters (and other dependents) on their health insurance until age 26 will affect many Illinois employers. The law also permits parents to extend coverage for dependents who are veterans until age 30.

This new law goes into effect on June 1, 2009. Families will have 90 days after their policy is renewed, to add the dependent to an existing policy. Each year thereafter, parents will be able to enroll dependents during the normal open enrollment period.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich used his amendatory veto to interject the changes into a health care bill, House Bill 5285. The original bill allows (more…)