TravisCobra: ARRA State Continuation
Category: 2009 Stimulus
Topics: arra, traviscobra
- Ability to allow ARRA for Non-Core benefit plans.
- Ability to allow ARRA for State Continuation PQBs.
These new options can be found under the Properties —> Options, PQB menu in TravisCobra.
Allow ARRA for Non-Core Benefit Plans
Administrators have had differing opinions regarding whether Dental and Vision plans, defined as non-core plans, can receive the 65% government ARRA subsidy. You can now restrict the subsidy in TravisCobra if your counsel has advised you to not subsidize these plans.When the Allow ARRA for Non-Core Benefit Plans option is selected, any benefit that is marked as non-core will have the ARRA premium subsidized. If this option is not selected, any benefit that is marked as non-core will be charged the full premium.
Allow ARRA for State Continuation PQBs
When this option is selected, any PQB that is added to State Continuation will have the ARRA Eligible box visible when assigning their event; in addition, the ARRA Re-Notification Utility will automatically re-notify any state PQB that was previously notified of their state continuation benefits with an event date on/or after 09/01/2008 and before 03/01/2009. Additionally, all ARRA letters and blocks are available for use with the State Specific modules.When this option is not selected, the PQB will not have the ARRA Eligible box visible when assigning their event; therefore, not allowing state PQBs to be assigned to ARRA.
Please note that for the Allow ARRA for State Continuation PQBs to be enabled, you must have the State Specific Modules for the TravisCobra system.
To Turn Off the ARRA Options:
When you upgrade to TravisCobra 8.3.0.12, both of these ARRA options are already selected by default.1. From the Properties menu, choose Options.
2. Select the PQB tab.
3. Un-Select the ARRA Option you want to disable.
4. Choose the OK button.
Software Availability
TravisCobra version 8.3.0.12 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.32 Responses to “TravisCobra: ARRA State Continuation”
Comments are closed for this article.
April 10th, 2009 at 07:04 AM
Will you please provide us the update? Or tell us where we can download it. Thanks, Shirley Witt, Clarian Health, Indianapolis, IN
April 13th, 2009 at 09:20 AM
@Shirley: The update is on the same FTP site where all previous 8.3 patches have been posted. An email with the FTP site was also sent out on Friday.
April 13th, 2009 at 01:38 PM
After applying the 4/9/09 update, we were unble to log into Travis. We received the error message “Sys_parm: Field ‘ARRAState’ not found. How do it fix this?
April 13th, 2009 at 01:46 PM
@Patty: Please contact Travis Support. We are unable to diagnose potential issues over the Blog.
April 13th, 2009 at 04:19 PM
1. We ran the re-notification process and then ran automatic letter processing. We noticed that the system did not update the participants after ALP as it should. We re-ran it again and decided to print the Certificate of Mailing and this is what actually triggered the system to update the participants who had letters generated. Is printing the certificate of mailing now a requirement that will drive the system to be updated?
2. We are on the latest version that you have released and noticed that participants who were non-commenced have the new pending record, but their benefit start date in the benefit panel is the original date. Example: Original Cobra start 11/1/08, benefits plan start date 11/1/08. The new record has all the dates the same. When posting a payment for this individual, the system is requiring a payment starting all the way back to 11/1/08. I activate the ARRA stimulus and it is still requiring payment back to 11/1/08. Isn’t the system supposed to show a payment due date of 3/1/09 and start from there in the payment screen? Also, I tried changing the benefits start date on the benefits panel and that did not help either. We pull data out of the system using the start dates, why doesn’t the system change the benefits start date to 3/1/09 for anyone that was not previously enrolled whose original COBRA start date was prior to 3/1/09 (anyone you create a new record for)? This is truly an issue because they do not owe premium back to the original COBRA start date. They only begin owing 3/1/09. We can not post fake payments to our system to get around this issue as it is used for our financial reporting. Has this already been reported and is it being worked on?
3. We ran the re-notification process and participants who met the eligibility (9/1/08 or greater) were selected, but we found participants that were in the system with ONLY FLEX plans that were initially offered. These participants are not eligible to elect. If I deny the eligibility for ARRA, will the system terminate them and close their enrollment period, or will it wait until the end of the enrollment period to do so.
4. What does the Deny function actually do and trigger? We are under the impression that if they are reach backs (non-commenced or enrolled but since terminated) that are electing to start again for 3/1/09 that they are not eligible to continue the coverage unless they are eligible under ARRA. If we deny their eligibility, does the system terminate them immediately or again, does it wait until the end of the enrollment period to do so. If we post receipt of their election form and deny the ARRA, it will look like they are eligible to continue and they truly are not. Should we just simply terminate them manually using the terminate member function?
Thanks.
April 14th, 2009 at 09:58 AM
After installing the current update we are getting the following error:
Sys.parm. Fiend’ARRAState’ not found
Anyone know of a solution? Am currently on hold for support and thought this would be faster.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:00 AM
@Frank: Several people have/are experiencing this error. It occurred because some tables in your system became corrupted during the patch upgrade. Travis Support can fix the issue. If anyone else is currently experiencing this issue, please contact Travis Support.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:46 AM
We also got the “Sys_parm: Field ‘ARRAState’ not found”. We ended up restoring back to before the update so that we could continue working.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:51 AM
@Debbie: Thanks for the advice!
April 14th, 2009 at 12:42 PM
There’s still a problem with a subsidy on top of a subsidy that causes it to look like WE owe people money instead of the other way around. Anyone running into this or have I just missed a crucial step? Thanks.
Chris Harley
April 14th, 2009 at 12:57 PM
@Denise: 1) No, printing the Certificate of Mailing is not a requirement. Please contact support if you continue to have problems. 2) . Any PQB who termed at the time of Re-Notification will have their due dates be 03/01/2009. You should verify that the PQB was indeed terminated at the time of Re-notification. This sounds like the PQB was still in a pending state when the Re-Notification Utility was run. On the terminated record, go to the PQB log and see if a termination letter printed. If not, then the PQB was pending at the time of Re-Notification. 3) The Re-Notification only looks at the PQBs status at the time of processing, not plans. 4) The deny process will only notify PQBs that they are not ARRA eligible. The system will not automatically terminate them at that point. They will terminate at the end of the enrollment period if coverage is not elected.
April 14th, 2009 at 01:03 PM
@Chris: I’m not sure what you are referring to and in what system. It sounds like you should contact Travis Support as we are unable to diagnose potential issues over the Blog.
April 14th, 2009 at 01:40 PM
We just applied this recent update and the premium reduction is no longer being applied to our prescription plan benefit, where in previous versions it had. The premium reduction is working correctly for our medical and dental plans. On hold with Travis support and also wanted to post comment…..
April 14th, 2009 at 02:30 PM
@Tracy: The most recent TravisCobra update, 8.3.0.12, included a new PQB option: Allow ARRA for Non-Core Benefit Plans. When this option is selected, any benefit that is marked as non-core will have the ARRA premium subsidized. If this option is not selected, any benefit that is marked as non-core will be charged the full premium.
April 14th, 2009 at 02:39 PM
How do we utilize the system to run ARRA re-notification letters for only certain qualifying events (for example: Divorce, Ineligible Dependent) for the time period 2/17/09 – current? From what I’ve seen in the system, the Manual Letter Writer wouldn’t work for this because there is not an option to choose which qualifying events or specific date ranges to run. Thanks.
April 14th, 2009 at 02:45 PM
How can we get the subsidy premium information to print on the premium computation form and the Enrollment form option page where it lists the premiums for tiers of coverage less that what they had at the time of the event so that they can see the subsidized premium for the reduced tiers of coverage?
April 14th, 2009 at 02:52 PM
@Heather: When you run the Re-Notification utility, you have the option to choose which events types to run the utility for, including Divorce and Ineligible dependent. These notices can also be printed for an individual PQB by selecting the Forms tab.
April 14th, 2009 at 03:15 PM
Thanks for the reply, Sarah, I know that when we run the wizard, we have the option to choose which event types we want to run the utility for, but if we’ve already done that and now we want to run ARRA re-notices for, let’s say for example, for the period 2/17/09 through 4/2/09, all PQBs under ABCD Company who have a qualifying event type of “ineligible dependent”, how would we do that? Thanks!
April 15th, 2009 at 10:08 AM
@Denise: The system cannot currently do this, but this feature has already been added to the Ideabook. If you would like to see this added to the system, please log into the Ideabook and vote!
April 15th, 2009 at 11:00 AM
@Heather: There is no way to pick a date range on the Re-Notification wizard, so you would have to pick the event, ineligible dependent for example, and then the employer, ABCD Company. If a QB has already been Re-Notified, the wizard will not pick them up for a second time, so any QB’s the wizard previously picked up, should not get picked up again.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:25 AM
System: TravisCOBRA,8.3.0.12
We already ran the ARRA re-notificaiton for terminated/pending/enrolled last week. We are finding whenever we run our daily AP, participants who are enrolling under ARRA, the ARRA Open Enrollment Form, COBRA Enrollment Form, Summary of ARRA, and Request for Treatment as an AEI is printing out. These participants have already recieved the ARRA materials. I can understand why the ARRA Open Enrollment Form is printing because the status changed to enrolled but why are the other ARRA documents printing out again? We are manually having to pull these documents as they are duplicates.
Is this duplicate letter generation issue being worked on? Thank you for your time.
April 15th, 2009 at 12:29 PM
I am editing the Enrollment Confirmation Letter (Letter 70) in TravisCOBRA. The first paragraph, last sentence reads “Your coverage in the Group Health Continuation Plan will begin as of {M013} and may continue up to {M039}.” For individuals who would have started COBRA before 3/1 (pending & terminated before re-notification), this date is not the date their coverage begins. I cannot find a macro in the user manual to pull “3/1/09” instead of the day their COBRA would have begun under the inital notice. Is there a macro to pull this date?
April 15th, 2009 at 01:08 PM
@Jon: The summary and model notice will always print for a Re-Notification, a pending PQB who is ARRA eligible, or for an enrolled PQB who is receiving an ARRA open enrollment form.
April 15th, 2009 at 02:00 PM
Hello Again, I will try to provide a little more info this time. Within TravisCOBRA,8.3.0.12 under the Benefit, PQB Initial Coverage Section. After we choose the base rate and then try to add an Adjustment (using either the straight figure or %) the Payment comes out to be negative which is incorrect. Thanks again.
Chris Harley
April 15th, 2009 at 02:46 PM
@Chris: Thanks for clarifying! You will still need to contact Travis Support however, as we are unable to diagnose potential issues over the Blog.
April 15th, 2009 at 03:21 PM
When the company is subsizing the PQB’s Cobra payment for lets say 3 months….why doesn’t this amount print on the enrollment form? It comes up as zero and then on the premium computation form it will show up after the 3 months. Thanks!
April 15th, 2009 at 04:34 PM
If someone is already enrolled in COBRA then sends in their ARRA payment, and we ARRA Verify them and enter the payment, the system is not kicking anything out to the employer/carrier. It correctly sends the notice to the employee, but nothing to the employer/carrier to say this person elected ARRA. Is there some type of ARRA notice to the employer/carrier that can be developed?
April 15th, 2009 at 06:01 PM
I have been holing on your support line for an hour and thought I might get a faster response this way. How do we deal with this scenario? We ran ARRA renotification utility and letters and are finding that not all originally offered plans appear on the COBRA notice. For example, a person who had enrolled COBRA between 9/1 and 2/17 and couldn’t afford the medical plan, so dropped it is not being offered the medical plan on the new notice. This is the person who this whole initiative is targeted to assist. HELP!!! Are we doing something incorrectly? Shouldn’t the original benefit plans that this person was offered be listed on the new notice?
April 16th, 2009 at 09:01 AM
@Rebecca: Please contact Travis Support. This could be a potential issue with Macro 13.
April 16th, 2009 at 09:17 AM
@Brad: That’s a great idea! Please add it to the Ideabook at http://ideabook.travisoft.com/ so we can see if our other product users would like to see this added to the system as well!
April 16th, 2009 at 09:26 AM
@Linda: In order to fix this, you will have to reassign the benefit plans.
April 16th, 2009 at 09:51 AM
@Janet: Please contact Travis Support. We are unable to diagnose potential issues over the Blog.