WebCOBRA and TravisCobra: Updated ARRA Capabilities
Category: 2009 Stimulus
Topics: arra, traviscobra, webcobra
This weekend we will be releasing yet another update to the WebCOBRA and TravisCobra systems as part of our continuing effort for ARRA administration.
- Events Post ARRA, which was modified to include all events.
- ARRA Re-Notified QBs, which includes QBs that were already been re-notified via the Involuntary Term Re-Notification Wizard.
Below is an example of what you will see when you are in the Manual Letter Wizard in WebCOBRA.com.
- ARRA Enrollment Form
- ARRA Summary Letter
- ARRA Model Notice
Below is an example of what you will see when you open the TravisCobra Manual Letter Writer.
After you select the manual ARRA notice or letter you wish to send, you can then also choose which group of PQBs to send the notices for: All, Active, Enrolled, Pending, Non-Commenced, and Terminated. This features will allow you to resend the DOL forms to anyone who has had an event post ARRA, and can also send the forms to any PQBs that you’ve already notified of ARRA.
Software Availability
WebCOBRA will be updated Saturday night in a seamless upgrade process.TravisCobra version 8.3.0.11 is available now. A release email was sent to you with the FTP location to download this latest patch, which happens to be the same FTP location you downloaded all previous 8.3 updates from.
62 Responses to “WebCOBRA and TravisCobra: Updated ARRA Capabilities ”
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April 3rd, 2009 at 07:42 PM
Thank you!! This is what I was hoping you would do.. will the Abbreviated Notice and the Extended Election notice now be added as letters to choose for the WebCOBRA system? Will we still need to go in to delete the records for those who are not Assistance Eligible as identified by our clients or will there be a way to ask the system to produce letters for only those who are identified as assistance eligible?
April 6th, 2009 at 05:39 AM
For WebCobra, was a fix released to correct what I refer to as the “Inconsistent Letter Creation” issue, which was causing some QBs to receive all of the ARRA Letters/Correspondence and other QBs to only receive a COBRA Election Notice?
April 6th, 2009 at 06:02 AM
Re: Send Letters Manually to QB’s – I am unable to access and get error report each time beginning on Friday.
April 6th, 2009 at 07:42 AM
These options are not showing on WebCobra today.
April 6th, 2009 at 09:28 AM
@Helen: Please contact Travis Support. We are unable to diagnose potential issues over the Blog.
April 6th, 2009 at 09:31 AM
@Stacey: Please make sure you are on the Recipient Selection step in the Manual Letter Wizard?
April 6th, 2009 at 09:55 AM
Hello!
Do we know when a release will be issued that will allow us to mark coverages that are exempt from ARRA, we have some clients that have coverages that are not ARRA eligible and the current process assumes they are and lists their premium as 35% of the total. Any help would be appreciated.
April 6th, 2009 at 09:56 AM
@Brooke: This was fixed over the weekend. If you still find you are having problems with this, please contact Travis Support.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Sarah,
I did go through the entire steps of the Manual Wizard and the above-mentioned options are not there.
Thanks,
April 6th, 2009 at 10:08 AM
WEBCOBRA questions: Why were all the ARRA required forms taken out of the system? Thank you.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:16 AM
After the Saturday update, the ARRA Summary Letter and ARRA Request letter are no longer in the Letter writer, and they are not printing either. Also, it seems all of our Customized letters are now back to the default letters.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Was their any modifications to the “under 20” state module in the latest release? I am still unable to re-print ARRA re-notifications for my under 20 groups. Can you project when that might be available?
April 6th, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Has anyone else had problems with the forms in the Manual Letter not printing correctly? For instance, the ARRA Enrollment Form prints nothing but blank pages; the ARRA Summary prints the Enrollment Forms; etc. Also BLOCK 39 is NOT printing on the ARRA Enrollment Form as was indicated in a previous discussion. What is being done to correct these issues?
April 6th, 2009 at 10:32 AM
@Stacey: Please contact Travis Support regarding this issue.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:55 AM
I am having problems with the dates that are on the re-notifications. If a QB was already enrolled they should have an additional 60 days to fill out our ARRA Enrollment Forms. Once the letters it is stating that the enrollment form needs to be returned by 1/21/09, but the letter just went out. The date should be 60 days from the date of the letter. Please let me know your suggestions.
Thanks!
April 6th, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Help. I have tried calling, emailing, and sending up smoke signals. I cannot get through to anyone. We have version 8.2, and have received no information about any newer versions, or any updates for ARRA. Can anyone help me talk to an actual human?
Thank you.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:28 AM
@Daisy @DeAnn @Kendra: Please contact Travis Support. We are unable to diagnose potential issues over the Blog.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:35 PM
@Julie: ARRA Modifications to the state modules is in the future product plans. We will keep you updated about new release features!
April 6th, 2009 at 12:39 PM
@Kelly: Understandably, Travis Support is experiencing an extremely high call volume. Emails have been sent for every new version 8.3 ARRA update. If you have not received these, please check your junk mail and email filters so that receive all future communication. Additionally, you can log your information in the Self-Service Portal as you are no longer able to email Travis Support.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:45 PM
@Rose: Please contact Travis Support. We are unable to diagnose potential issues over the Blog.
April 6th, 2009 at 02:02 PM
@Kelly: Question 1.) 1. You can add the abbreviated notice to the ARRA open enrollment form that is talked about in this Blog: http://blog.travisoft.com/2009/3/25/notifying-enrolled-cobra-qbs-of-arra. Question 2.) You can delete the records if you only want to notify a list of QBs that you believe are eligible.
April 6th, 2009 at 02:04 PM
@George: This will be added to the TravisCobra system version 8.3.0.12. We will keep you posted as to when this version will be released!
April 6th, 2009 at 03:11 PM
Logging in to Travis Support would be fabulous, however, I don’t have a log-in. The person who did this job before may have had one, but left no information as to whether or not that is the case. And, to get a log-in, one must call Support. Which brings us right back to the problem of me not being able to get through to Support.
No emails have been received.
April 6th, 2009 at 03:17 PM
In WebCOBRA it looks as though all of our customized letters have been reset- I called support and they said your team was working on fixing this and our letters should go back to how we customized them – do you know if there is a time line as to when our letters should go back to how they were before the update took place?
April 6th, 2009 at 03:28 PM
@Kelly: Travis Support can provide you with a Self-Service log-in and information for the FTP to download the latest ARRA patch. Please make sure that Travis@announcement.travisoft.com is marked as “safe” so that you are able to receive future product announcements.
April 6th, 2009 at 03:33 PM
@Jessica: We do not have a specific timeline to provide you, but we are working to get this issue resolved in as timely a manner as possible.
April 6th, 2009 at 04:15 PM
Sarah:
Can you give us an idea of what is expected with the 8.3.0.13 release? It seems that we’ve gotten a couple of releases that aren’t helping with the issues we’re having. I’d like to know what updates/changes are planned. Thank you, Elizabeth
April 6th, 2009 at 05:27 PM
We know you are working on the loss of Customized letters in the Web system, but can you please give us a status… we really need our letters
April 6th, 2009 at 08:20 PM
We use Travis COBRA and are experiencing issues using the subsidy function in conjunction with participants who are ARRA eligible – but only in records that were not created as part of the renotification utility. For example, we ran the renotification utility and in the new record created, assigned a 5 month 100% employer paid subsidy. The system is properly calculating the 5 month subsidy as zero, reflects the ARRA subsidy for the 6th – 9th months and then charges the full premium from the 10th month forward. Then, I created a new account (not using the renotification utility) using an event type of Termination and marked the ARRA Eligible flag. I went into the system and applied a 5 month employer paid subsidy and entered the ARRA Verify option. After the employer subsidy is over, the system is not calcuating the ARRA subsidy for the remainding months. Has anyone else experienced this problem?
April 7th, 2009 at 08:39 AM
@Kelly: This was corrected last night. If you are still experiencing issues, contact Travis Support.
April 7th, 2009 at 09:08 AM
The customized letters have been restored, but the manual letter function so that we can run the ARRA letters by group, is not functioning. When will this be fixed
April 7th, 2009 at 09:44 AM
@Elizabeth: As soon as the new features that will be in TravisCobra release 8.3.0.12, we will update you.
April 7th, 2009 at 09:46 AM
@Melissa: Please contact Travis Support. We are unable to diagnose potential issues over the Blog.
April 7th, 2009 at 09:56 AM
How do we activate the ARRA Opt out feature on the Personal screen. I thought that if you denied ARRA on the action screen the fields would populate, but that is not the case. We are on TRAVIS COBRA 8.3.10. Thanks.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:21 AM
@Jodi: ARRA Opt Out is only available when the QB is ARRA verified. If you deny ARRA, then there is no point to opt out of ARRA.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:30 AM
@Kelly: Are you referring to the ARRA Summary and ARRA application not populating? If so, we are currently working on a hotfix for this issue. If you are referring to a different issue, please contact Travis Support as we are unable to diagnose potential issues over the Blog.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:00 AM
I just ran the re-notification wizard and went to review and print the letters and I noticed that the DOL summary letter and the request to be treated as an AIE are not included in the letters that generated- I was under the impression that they were suppose to generate with the re-notification letters is this not the case?
April 7th, 2009 at 11:10 AM
The premium computation form is calculating a total of the actual premium, not the subsidy total. Should I expect a change or should I customize the field for a subsidy total?
Also, love the comparison of actual vs subsidized amounts on the enrollment form!!!
April 7th, 2009 at 11:13 AM
In WebCOBRA our most recent customized “ARRA Opening Paragraph” (appears on the COBRA Offer Letter) has NOT been restored. Rather, a much older version of the customized paragraph that we created prior to the most recent one was restored.
I created the most recent customized paragraph last Saturday. When you restored the customized letters how far back in time did you go? Also, before I do all of the work again, is there any chance a future fix is going to destroy all of my work again?
Thanks
- Chuck Tantillo
April 7th, 2009 at 12:02 PM
Sarah- No, I am talking about the feature that was suppose to have been added Saturday night for WEBCOBRA as a hotfix, so that you can access the manual letter writer to send letters by Groups – as described above in this Blog… ever since Friday afternoon the Manual letterwrite function has not worked and it reports an Major Error when you click on the link …I believe this is global as others have reported it above
April 7th, 2009 at 01:26 PM
@Kelly: This issue has not been reported to Travis Support. Please contact them and they will be able to further investigate this potential issue.
April 7th, 2009 at 01:29 PM
@Leann: You can copy/paste Block 39 into the Premium Computation form in order to show the comparison amounts, just like on the Enrollment Form.
April 7th, 2009 at 01:59 PM
@Chuck: The letter data was restored to Friday night’s, 4/3/2009, data.
April 7th, 2009 at 02:44 PM
I added block 39 to the enrollment form according to the instructions, but it doesn’t print the new subsidy rate only the 102% rate. Is there a problem with this, or am I not doing something correctly? Also, where do I insert blocks 40, 41 & 42?
April 7th, 2009 at 03:11 PM
@Barbara: Please contact Travis Support regarding Block 39. A sample COBRA Election notice was published in the Travis Software ARRA Release 8.3 PDF document, which can be found on the FTP site you downloaded the latest patch from, that will show you where we suggest you place Blocks 40, 41, and 42.
April 7th, 2009 at 03:14 PM
@Haylie: The issue you are experiencing has been reported and we are currently working to resolve it.
April 8th, 2009 at 08:20 AM
Sarah, Is there any way possible to generate the COBRA packets to a certain set of people in TRAVIS within the same group but not deleting the others since we need to other records to be in there??? Please advise ?
April 8th, 2009 at 09:34 AM
I have been on hold for 55 minutes & all I need is the FTP site to download. The person that used to work with Cobra is not longer with the company. I have the username and password just need the FTP site.
April 8th, 2009 at 09:42 AM
@Amit: I just forwarded the release e-mail to you directing you to how to download the latest TravisCobra patch. As you can understand, we cannot post the FTP site on the Blog because this is a public site. Also, please confirm with you IT staff that travis@announcements.travisoft.com is allowed to come through your email system so that you receive all future release emails and they are not caught by the spam filter.
April 8th, 2009 at 09:57 AM
@Aakash: You can manually print an election packet for PQBs under the Forms tab on the PQB Edit screen, and doing this will not delete other records. You can also manually print ARRA notices and forms to be sent to PQB groups such as all, enrolled, pending, etc., through the Manual Letter writer. Doing this will also not delete other records.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Sarah, I understand that manually this can be done but unfortunately this is a huge account and we have about 15,000 records. Normally we use the downloader to enter them in, is there any where in the downloader that we can download them through creating duplicate entries( not override since some of them are already enrolled) but with some kind on FLAG on them so we know that these PQB’S are for stimulus only and can identify them from the regular ones that are already in TRAVIS??
April 8th, 2009 at 12:04 PM
I have to agree with several other comments that have been made “you cannot reach support”. We have held over 2 hours and had to abandon call. When updates are performed do you send changes for the user manuals? Could you specify the pages that would need to be reprinted? Are user manuals available through Travis?
April 8th, 2009 at 12:34 PM
@Kathie:If you do not want to hold for Travis Support, as they are experiencing extremely high call volumes, you can utilize the Self-Service portal, submit your case or issue, and a support representative will get back with you in as timely a manner as possible.
April 8th, 2009 at 12:56 PM
@Aakash: Using field 180, you can download ARRA PQBs. You can also re-notify already enrolled PQBs with the Re-Notification Utility. For more information on your options you can refer to the Travis Users Manual or contact Travis Support.
April 8th, 2009 at 02:46 PM
I was told to use the ARRA field when uploading our members using XML in Web COBRA so they would get the correct form, this feild does not seem to be working, has anyone else had this issue?
April 8th, 2009 at 03:02 PM
How can I get an updated manual showing the boxes and Macro’s. The last one we have is release 7.07. I am trying to do a free form letter to print only the retro letters and have not been able to locate all the “codes” needed.
Also my patch on monday, did not include the Block 39 information. it is a blank letter. Do i just type it in from the copy.
April 8th, 2009 at 03:14 PM
@Sue: Every TravisCobra patch you run places an updated User Manual in your data set. You can also go to the Help menu and select contents for an online TravisCobra help system. Block 39 is a group of Macros that are used for the ARRA Enrollment form to compare ARRA subsidized rates to the regular plan rates.
April 8th, 2009 at 03:18 PM
@Adella: This issue has not been reported. Please contact Travis Support.
April 8th, 2009 at 03:45 PM
I have just upgraded to version 8.0. I am getting error msg “Error reading RbillDB.AliasName: TAdsConnection.AliasName is not valid” when trying to install patch 8.1,8.2 & 8.3.
April 8th, 2009 at 03:53 PM
@Amit: Please contact Travis Support. We cannot help you upgrade your system over the Blog.
April 8th, 2009 at 05:13 PM
QUESTION (1) For the ARRA forms the current print order is: A. ARRA SUMMARY B. ARRA REQUEST C. ARRA ENROLLMENT WORKSHEET The QB information is on the ARRA ENROLLMENT worksheet. How can we get the ARRA ENROLLMENT to print first so that we can split the batches of 1000 as they are printing?
QUESTION (2) Where is the caluclated subsidy end date so that we can tell the pqbs the projected end date of the subsidy?
QUESTION (3) Where is the number of remaining months in the COBRA period for those pqbs in the second election groupso that we can tell them how many months are remaining from the original qualifying event date?
QUESTION (4) How do we modify the ARRA REQUEST form for all of our clients?
Based on the response to quesion 1 & 4: QUESTION (5) & QUESTION (6) How do we supress the printing of the ARRA REQUEST and ARRA SUMMARY? How to we copy a table in to forms and keep outline border around the table?
April 9th, 2009 at 09:27 AM
@Raymond: Are these questions for TravisCobra or WebCOBRA?