Travis Software Official Blog

Hello again, and thanks for joining us for a new edition of Tuesday Tips! May’s Tip discusses transferring plans in both our WebCOBRA and TravisCobra systems.

At certain times, such as Open Enrollment, it may be necessary to transfer benefit assignments and Qualified Beneficiaries to other Carriers. This process involves transferring participants from the “Source Plan” to a “Target Plan.”

We here at Travis hope the first quarter of 2012 was a great one for you! We would like to share another Tuesday Tip that we think will be helpful to you in your daily COBRA administration activities.

This month’s tip demonstrates how to add dependents to an existing Qualified Beneficiary (QB) group in both our WebCOBRA and TravisCobra systems. For instance, if a QB has a baby, you will enter the baby as an additional dependent to the existing QB record.

Travis has a new Tuesday Tip for you! This month we want to provide details for a recent enhancement that was added to WebCOBRA.

An enhancement added in February allows for a user to include, for billing purposes, additional documents that are sent to a qualified beneficiary (QB) along with the COBRA Enrollment Form.

A new burden imposed on certain employers by the Health Care Reform act (PPACA) is the requirement to report the cost of group health coverage on an employee’s IRS Form W-2, including that of former employees who enroll in COBRA continuation coverage. This new disclosure is required only for employers that prepare more than 250 W-2s for the preceding calendar year and is solely for informational purposes to provide employees with useful and comparable consumer information on the cost of their health care coverage. This requirement begins for 2012 Form W-2s, which are to be provided to employees/former employees on or before January 31, 2013.

IRS recently issued new guidance on this requirement (IRS Notice 2012-9), and Travis is currently working through this guidance to create a new report for both TravisCobra and WebCOBRA On Demand to provide employers and administrators with this newly needed group health benefit cost information.

Hello again, and welcome back to Tuesday Tips! This month’s edition takes you step-by-step through the process of entering retroactive information in both our WebCOBRA and TravisCobra systems.

Occasionally, you might need to enter Participants into your system that have previously been on COBRA coverage and administered outside of WebCOBRA or TravisCobra. For instance, this could be the case in the event of a “Takeover” where a third-party administrator has gained a new client who was either administering COBRA for themselves or with another administrator previously.

Travis is currently working to add a new Qualifying Event entitled “HCTC/VEBA Eligibility.” This Qualifying Event includes a 72.5% subsidy that is automatically applied and expires at the end of 2013.

A court recently approved the creation of an “Auto Retiree VEBA Trust,” which is a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association designed to provide health benefits to eligible retired auto workers. A VEBA provides a way for employers to make a one-time contribution and satisfy the health liabilities of retirees. This VEBA is unique in that it is not tied to any one employer, but covers regional eligible retirees in the auto industry.

As Travis welcomes the new year 2012, we wanted to take a moment to briefly discuss the landmark events that occurred during 2011 and let you know of the exciting new things that are planned for 2012!

We hope that each of you are off to a great start in 2012 and are pleased to have another year of annual enrollment period behind you!

Travis had an “interesting” 2011. Organizationally, the most visible change was that Alan Williams, Travis’ Founder, stepped back from the business so that Lauren Williams, his daughter, could take over the day-to-day operations of the company. Alan is certainly still involved in the company, but he is just spending more time away from the office.

ObamaCare changed the future landscape of healthcare, but one change that is currently in effect is that a group health plan or health insurance issuer that offers group health insurance coverage must make dependent coverage of children available until a child’s attainment of 26 years of age. Specifically, for plan years beginning on and after January 1, 2011, a group health plan must provide health coverage for employees’ children until the child turns 26.

In 2010, the IRS issued Temporary Regulations regarding the coverage requirement. Travis Software usually does not make changes based upon temporary regulations, however, we received customer suggestions to incorporate this new change and felt it appropriate considering all of the attention ObamaCare is getting.

Welcome to the first Tuesday Tips blog of 2012! This edition of Tuesday Tips outlines the process for correcting a Site User security role assignment in WebCOBRA On Demand.

The system is designed for Site Users to have just one security role assignment. In certain instances the system permits the assignment of multiple security roles to one Site User, but this is unnecessary when the “Supervisory Administrator” security role is selected.

All of us at Travis hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to a great New Year! As we do each year at this time, we want to give you the days in 2012 when Travis’ offices will be closed for holidays.

Welcome back to Tuesday Tips, December 2011 edition! The holiday season has begun, which means the new year is just around the corner. We here at Travis know that this time of year is especially busy for our TravisFlex system users, and wanted to give you a review of a couple functions in the system. This month’s Tuesday Tips includes instructions for re-exporting claims and re-importing daily settlements that did not export or import. Also, we have included an overview of Year End Processing in TravisFlex.

As the holiday season approaches, we at Travis wanted to send a quick reminder of the days that the Travis office will be closed. With the exception of the holidays listed below, our office will be open as usual and the Travis Support Team will be available from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm, Central Standard Time, at 281-496-3737 and select Option 3.

Tuesday Tips is back with helpful hints for WebCOBRA and TravisCobra! In our Tuesday Tips blog posts, we discuss and give step-by-step instructions for common features or recently introduced functionality in our systems.

November’s Tuesday Tip illustrates how to perform rate changes in both our WebCOBRA and TravisCobra systems. Rate changes are generally performed when an Administrator is notified by a Carrier of new premium rates that begin on the Plan Anniversary Date.

Travis Software is pleased to announce that Lauren M. Williams has been promoted to President of the Company effective October 28, 2011. Lauren will continue to fill the role of Chief Operating Officer for the Company, a role she has held since January of this year.

In her new role as President, Lauren will increasingly be the chief spokesperson for the Company, responsible for managing relationships with customers as well as continuing to maintain the Company’s growth and smooth operation.

WebCOBRA continues to dominate the COBRA administration software market with over 500 administrator and employer organizations using the system! And TravisCobra, the leading Windows-based system for COBRA administration, continues to have several hundred users as well. Why is that? Our customers consistently tell us it’s because both systems are feature-rich, dependable, and because we listen to and accommodate our customers’ suggestions rather than forcing our own beliefs of how COBRA ought to be done and how the systems ought to work. Both systems are constantly updated to make them extremely flexible. With both systems, YOU get to choose from an array of options allowing you to administer COBRA the way you see fit.