Travis Software Official Blog

There are a lot of questions surrounding how WebCOBRA.com calculates a premium whenever there are the inevitable modifications, such as mid-month coverage changes, plan drops, plan adds, etc., that occur to a QBs account. Travis Support would like to provide a few scenarios that will help you, our customers, understand what the best practice to follow would be in these situations.

Drop at End of Month

In the first scenario, let’s say we want to cover the QB for the entire month of February, but we don’t want the QB to be covered as of March 1st. In WebCOBRA.com, the correct way to enter the “Effective Date of the Plan Drop” is 3/1/2009. This will effectively make the end date of the benefit dropped 2/28/2009, meaning the QB will only be on the plan for the entire month of February and pay a full month’s premium for February.

Drop Mid Month

In the second scenario, we want to only charge a QB for 14 days of coverage in February. To accomplish this, we’ll drop the QB effective 2/15/2009. We will use an example with a plan that has a rate of 100 dollars (no admin fee to make it simple.) Using this example, we should expect the system to charge/prorate the premium in the amount of 46.03 for 14 days of coverage in February.

Please note that this final value of $46.03 comes from the following calculation with the option turned on to prorate premiums on a yearly basis. Here’s how it would play out in both Yearly and Monthly proration:

Mid Month Rate and Coverage Level Changes

In scenarios where you want to make a change, not necessarily a drop, but a coverage level change—the same rules apply. For example, if you need to change the level of coverage from single to family due to the birth of a baby. The baby was born on 2/18/2009. Therefore, in this scenario, you want to charge for 17 days at the single rate and 11 days at the family rate. The same rules apply to the way that rate changes work.

Prior Activity Paid Through Date

Whenever you want to add a paid through date to a QB that you are entering with a prior activity, (i.e. they have already received an election notice, paid through a specific date, etc) you enter the actual date they are paid through. WebCOBRA.com doesn’t take into account any prorated dates for a prior activity. So, if the QB’s next premium needs to be 2/1/2009, you will enter 1/31/2009 in the paid through date field.