A group health plan cannot require payment for any period of COBRA continuation coverage earlier than 45 days after the day on which the qualified beneficiary made the initial election for continuation coverage.
However, you must sign up for coverage before the 60 day period has ended. So on day 59 you will face a choice: sign up for COBRA (and submit payment within 45 days) or sign up for an alternative health care plan going forward (or go without any coverage from that point forwrad).
Right, so at day 59 you can sign up, then at day 59 + 44 = 103 you decide whether you had enough medical care during that time that you should pay for COBRA and get that medical care covered or whether you should not pay the premium, which means you were not covered that whole time. Either way you should get coverage after day 103 either by paying the back COBRA premiums and continuing to pay for COBRA going forward, or by getting other insurance. Waiting to pay the premium basically pushes out the decision point for whether to be covered retroactively by COBRA out another month and a half when you'll have even more information.
Although this is technically correct, IF you need medical care, you will have no insurance to present to a healthcare provider until after your insurance company clears the check AND processes the paperwork. So unless you are in an ER with a life threatening issue, you will 1.) be refused service or 2.) be expected to pay upfront.
It's unclear to me which period you are referring to - the 60 day grace period or the following 45 day period when payment is due. However, neither is accurate. By law, you are permitted 60 days to *remain* on your previous employers health care plan under HIPPA. If you have to go for medical care, that is the insurance information you provide to the health-care provider. By law they cannot refuse service, and by law your employer's health care plan cannot refuse to cover you.
After the 60 day period, you must have notified your previous health care plan of your intention to continue coverage under COBRA. Under that circumstance, your coverage remains the same as before, though you will be billed for the full premium and any co-pays starting from the day you left your previous job.
You do not *remain* on your previous coverage (ended 4/30/19). You get *new or reinstated* coverage retroactively (started 5/1/19).
My insurance company did not activate my membership until several weeks after I submitted the paperwork and payment. I had an appointment scheduled on 5/30 with a specialist, that I scheduled several months earlier and took the first available. When the provider used their system to confirm my membership with the insurance company, it showed I was not active. The insurance company did not know I was active, because the employer had not sent them the needed information. I had to pay the full cost out-of-pocket or they would not see me, and that was after arguing with them, because they wanted to just cancel my appointment.
I filed a complaint with the Department of Labor due the the COBRA violation -- filled out forms, submitted copies, talked to someone on the phone a couple of times. In the end they said it wasn't really a violation, because the language was vague in the letter I received. The COBRA letter specifically said the coverage would not be activated until payment was received. I was thoroughly disgusted with the DoL.
BTW, I submitted the enrollment documents and payment online only a day or two after receiving the notice, and my checking account was debited the next day (5/23). It was almost a month later before my coverage was active. So as far as providers were concerned, I wasn't covered for almost 8 weeks. The real culprit here was the employer, though, not the insurance company.
Oh, and they required me to pay for 3 months up front before activating (for May, June, and July based on notice received 5/20). Another clear COBRA violation.
