WebCOBRA and TravisCobra are Evolving with ARRA Regulations
Category: 2009 Stimulus
Topics: 2009 stimulus, traviscobra, webcobra
As you are aware, new regulations and features relating to ARRA are coming out on a daily basis, and we are continually updating our WebCOBRA and TravisCobra systems to reflect these revisions.
Our releases have included adding information to the premium production report, letting you select which event types to re-notify, and adding regular and ARRA premiums to the Enrollment form. When the DOL issues model notices for the ARRA Enrollment process, we will update the notices accordingly in both WebCOBRA and TravisCobra.
We’ll be adding features and methods to let administrators match their business processes with the new ARRA regulations and guidance. We program our systems based both on the guidance from government agencies and the feedback we receive from our users. The information we’ve been receiving from you has been invaluable in helping us to craft an administration system that meets your needs.
We’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available so keep checking back!
39 Responses to “WebCOBRA and TravisCobra are Evolving with ARRA Regulations”
Comments are closed for this article.
March 13th, 2009 at 03:29 PM
Excellent. This is exactly the willingness to adjust your products and services to meet our needs that we must have if we are to meet our clients needs. Thanks so much!
March 13th, 2009 at 04:28 PM
I agree with Chuck!!
March 13th, 2009 at 04:37 PM
We have many Trust groups where the group is the Trust and each branch is an employer group participating in the Trust. Many of our Trusts are requesting that we provide each employer group (or branch) their own Premium Susbidy reports so they know what their 65% is to remit back to the Trust. Can the new ARRA Premium Subsidy report be run by branch as well as by group? Thanks!
March 16th, 2009 at 01:26 PM
@Victoria: You’ll want to either pursue custom programming to break and group by Branch, or add the idea to our ideabook at http://ideabook.travisoft.com
March 17th, 2009 at 01:30 PM
I’ve noticed after sending out MANY re-notifications that the subsidy amount is NOT taken off of the Health Reimbursement Arrangement. How can this be fixed?
March 17th, 2009 at 02:09 PM
@Danielle: Since the guidance stated that Flex Accounts are denied from the subsidy, we took the same meaning to HRA’s (that the government would not subsidize your continued deposits/access to HRAs).
If you receive guidance from DOL/IRS about HRAs, or if the model notices state that HRA’s are subsidy eligible, we’ll modify the system to enable those.
March 17th, 2009 at 02:54 PM
I ran the ARRA wizard last week for a client and it printed out the entire COBRA election package (election form, ARRA notice, waiver, premium computation, tier selection). I did NOT authorize stimulus pkg on the Actions tab. The system printed the enrollment form showing only the subsidized premium rates. I received the completed form back from the continuant with payment based on the subsidy, but he is NOT eligible. I tried to enter the reduced payment hoping I could apply it to his account and then send a deficient payment notice but the system tells me I must Authorize QB for ARRA Stimulus. Am I missing something and/or how do I remedy this situation?
March 17th, 2009 at 03:22 PM
@Jim: The theory behind the message about having to authorize the ARRA Subsidy is that the QB has not fulfilled his right to enroll in this case, so the system doesn’t want you to enter a bad balance. Since you’re looking to re-enroll a QB back into COBRA, but NOT at the subsidized rates, you’ll need to opt-out of the QB subsidy. You may need to speak with Support regarding opting out a QB before authorizing them.
March 17th, 2009 at 03:25 PM
Jesse, thanks…this is not a new enrollment period. This someone whose QE was 2/28/2009 and COBRA effective is 3/01. Should I be waiting to process QE notices?
March 17th, 2009 at 04:46 PM
On QEs going forward that qualify for the subsidy, should we not be able to select the ARRA reason on the system and it generate the letter? When I attempted to use it for a 3/15/09 date I got the error that it only applied to dates between 9/1/08 and 2/17/09 to create a second notice. How should these be handled?
March 17th, 2009 at 05:01 PM
I tried to go in to enter a newly submitted qualifying event which shows “Involuntary Termination” as the qualifying event. I chose this option in the system but it’s not allowing this because the actual QE date was not between 9/1 and 2/17. What am I doing wrong?
March 18th, 2009 at 08:22 AM
@Jim: I think you and I are missing something in the conversation, but this isn’t the forum to try and figure it out. Please contact support and they can get with you on the details.
@Debbie and @Brandi: For events after 2/17/2009 ARRA won’t be your reason for a qualifying event (because that’s really the new enrollment period ‘re-notification’). Instead, you’ll add as normal and Enable ARRA. In WebCOBRA, you’ll choose to include the ARRA Enrollment Form, and in TravisCobra you’ll mark them as ARRA Enabled.
March 18th, 2009 at 08:47 AM
Please provide me the complete specifications for the CSV Format version of the WebCobra application.
March 18th, 2009 at 09:05 AM
@Greg: It has always been available in the WebCOBRA application under IT Resources.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Unless I am not doing it correctly, when I enter someone with an QE after 02/17 )(WebCobra) and choose to print an ARRA Enrollment form (under Prior Activity), the subsidy enrollment form is part of the packet but there is no ARRA information provided. Are you in the process of revising this and if so, should we hold off entering QE info.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Jesse – this in your response (#2) to Debbie and Brandi For webCOBRA you say to include ARRA enrollment form. Is that done at Prior Activity when it says Do you want to print an ARRA Enrollment form to this QB Group? When I did it this way, an ARRA enrollment form was printed but there was no explanation of ARRA or subsidy. Am I doing this incorrectly or is this being amended and if so, when will it be done. I am hesitating to enter information for those terminated after 2/17.
March 18th, 2009 at 01:06 PM
@Helen: If you have not already done so, please contact Travis Support. This could be an issue within the system, but we can’t diagnose potential issues over the Blog. Thanks!
March 18th, 2009 at 01:14 PM
Hello,
I tried to run automatic letters today, prior to running our ARRA re-notifications.
The ARRA Re-notifications started generating automatically. Is there a way to turn this off until the final guidelines and wording have been released by the DOL?
It would be easier to run ARRA re-notifications by themself.
March 18th, 2009 at 01:37 PM
@Helen: You appear to be doing it correctly; please contact Travis Support and they can help diagnose what the disconnect is.
March 18th, 2009 at 02:53 PM
@Jeannette: The only two options you have to not print letters in the TravisCobra system are to either not run the Re-Notification Utility or don’t run letter printing.
March 18th, 2009 at 03:46 PM
Sarahm
Thank you for your response.
I did not run the Re-Notification Utility yet, and they still popped up with my automatic letters. I have run the Re-notification on a test group only and it creates a new record for each person I select. When I tried to run autoletters on all employers it started sending the ARRA Re-Notifications so I aborted.
I realize I process things a little differently than some COBRA administrators. I really don’t want to have the Re-Notifications print with all the other letters. Trying to sort through that many letters at once is quite a bit of extra work and time.
Do you know where they are at with allowing the total premium amount and the subsidized premium amount to print on the letters?
Thank you again for all of your time and assistance.
March 18th, 2009 at 07:11 PM
Above Jesse wrote this to Debbie and Brandi….
@Debbie and @Brandi: For events after 2/17/2009 ARRA won’t be your reason for a qualifying event (because that’s really the new enrollment period ‘re-notification’). Instead, you’ll add as normal and Enable ARRA. In WebCOBRA, you’ll choose to include the ARRA Enrollment Form, and in TravisCobra you’ll mark them as ARRA Enabled.
For ongoing terms- My question is we are a big TPA and send out about 90 or so notices once a week, some are going to be eligible and some are not. We use the CSV file and I was told before that their is a feild for the ARRA so Web COBRA will know when to send the ARRA notice or not, but per Jessee’s comments above it sounds like he is saying enter them as normal and then go into each account and choose the ARRA options, isnt there a simplier way?
March 19th, 2009 at 06:57 AM
Good morning – I see that the model notices were released from the DOL. How soon do you anticipate a new patch to incorporate the model notices? Thanks!
March 19th, 2009 at 07:42 AM
The DOL released information today, where they say they released the Model Notices on thier web site, has anyone else been able to find them? Can you direct me to where they are?
March 19th, 2009 at 08:19 AM
@Adella: You can find the DOL Notices here: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/COBRAmodelnotice.html.
March 19th, 2009 at 08:21 AM
@Cara: Travis is working hard to update both the TravisCobra and WebCOBRA systems with the new DOL notices. We will keep you posted on when they will be available through the Blog!
March 19th, 2009 at 08:25 AM
@Jeannette: That feature is now available. For TravisCobra, it was released in version 8.3.0.08 and is available as B039. You can download the patch by going to the same FTP site you downloaded the 8.3 patch from.
March 19th, 2009 at 08:59 AM
I see that the DOL has released the General Model Notices. When will WebCOBRA upload this information into the system for client use.
March 19th, 2009 at 09:55 AM
@Adella: There is a field that marks them as elgible, feild 180, but in order to activate this (aka the person elects) you have to enable ARRA on the action tab.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:04 AM
@Marcie: We are currently evaluating the DOL notices and will post our plans for inclusion in the system as soon as we can!
March 19th, 2009 at 01:49 PM
We have run the re-notification process and printed letters. Our client has now stated that they would prefer to re-run the letters using the DOL notices released today. Will this be possible after the new patch is made available?
March 19th, 2009 at 01:59 PM
@Sara: Unfortunately the answer is no. Once process is run and letters are printed, there is no turning back. The only option you have is to restore your data prior to running letters, but if you do that you will lose the data they have been entering and won’t be able to print letters until the patch with the DOL letters are released.
March 19th, 2009 at 02:13 PM
Evidently we have only run the re-notification process but the letter process was aborted. Still the same answer? Thanks.
March 19th, 2009 at 02:26 PM
@Sara: If the letters were aborted or you answered “No” to the message “Are the Letters Correct” message, then they will still print out next time you run Auto Processing.
March 19th, 2009 at 03:39 PM
RE:Invoicing the employer for the 65%
We are a public entity, third party administrator. We administer the health/dental/vision benefits of several employers in California. What will Travis be offering in the form of a bill we can provide to the employers so they can pay their 65%?
Thank you, Hilda
March 19th, 2009 at 03:56 PM
@Hilda: You will still be able to create Invoices based on the ARRA reports in Travis, but it is not in the product plans to create a specific bill; however, you are welcome to submit the Idea to the Travis Ideabook!
March 20th, 2009 at 10:09 AM
Hello: In response to my previous post of the HRA’s not meeting the subsidy, we contacted SHRM. Please see the following response.
Here’s what you requested: Are HRA plans eligible for the COBRA subsidy offered through the stimulus package? If so, has the DOL released this in writing? Here’s what we can provide: Based on the information provided by a law firm (see below), yes HRAs are eligible for the subsidy. I find no specific evidence that as of yet the DOL has released this information in writing.
Generally, all group health plans subject to COBRA constitute eligible coverage for purposes of the subsidy. For example, medical, dental, vision, and
health reimbursement arrangements qualify as eligible coverage. In contrast, health flexible spending arrangements are not eligible coverage for purposes of the subsidy. Coverage under state law that requires continuation coverage comparable to the continuation coverage required under Federal COBRA rules is also eligible coverage, as is continuation of coverage under requirements that apply to health plans maintained by the Federal government or a state government.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:43 AM
I have read through the DOL letter, but can’t find anything on the FSA. Is a FSA eligible for the ARRA?
March 20th, 2009 at 12:57 PM
@Debra: FSA is not eligible for the ARRA subsidy.