[Update] Travis Software Announces Update to WebCOBRA On Demand and TravisCobra to help meet the "Continuing Extension Act of 2010"

Posted on April 26th, 2010 by MLondoff | 14 comments »
Category: New Features
Topics: , , ,

On April 15, 2010, Congress passed and the President later signed the Continuing Extension Act of 2010 (the “Act”) that extended to May 31, 2010 the eligibility for the 65% premium subsidy for COBRA premiums for individuals that incur an involuntary termination of employment on or before that date. Prior to this Act, the eligibility time period for the COBRA premium subsidy expired on March 31, 2010. This Act modifies the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which was amended by the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 earlier this year.

Travis Software Corp. is working now on updates to both WebCOBRA On Demand and TravisCobraTM to help you meet the requirements of this new law.

[Updated 4/26/2010] We plan to have the new release of TravisCobraTM delivered to TravisCobraTM Users on Tuesday, April 27, 2010. The new release of WebCOBRA On Demand will be implemented and available to WebCOBRA On Demand Users by Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. Additional testing was required for these updates to include the new ability to access and edit the ARRA Summary Letter and Request Form (as published by the DOL).

The system update will include:

[Updated: 4/26/2010]
  • New capability to access and edit the ARRA Summary Letter and Request Form (as published by the DOL).
  • A modification to include the requisite ARRA subsidy language and modified forms for each individual that incurs a Qualifying Event on or before May 31, 2010.
  • The ability to automatically print letters to re-notify individuals who (i) incurred a Qualifying Event on or after April 1, 2010, and (ii) whose COBRA Election Notice or State Continuation Eligibility Notice was printed after April 1, 2010 so that their notice did not incorporate the COBRA premium subsidy offer. The re-notification letters will be able to be generated for those who meet both criteria above through the date that the WebCOBRA or TravisCobraTM User first uses the system that includes the upcoming release. For WebCOBRA Customers, the upcoming release will automatically include the update upon implementation of the new release. For TravisCobraTM customers, the upcoming release will need to be downloaded and installed.

Travis’ staff is working carefully on these changes to make sure that we add these new capabilities while maintaining all other capabilities currently in the system. We will notify you when both the WebCOBRA release is implemented, and when the TravisCobraTM release is available for downloading.

Thank you again for being a Travis customer. We will continue to respond when changes to the COBRA law are enacted.

For additional information regarding the Temporary Extension Act, please see www.dol.gov/ebsa/COBRA.

Copyright 2010 Travis Software Corp. All rights reserved. Travis Software, TravisCobra, and WebCOBRA are trademarks of Travis Software Corp.

14 Responses to “[Update] Travis Software Announces Update to WebCOBRA On Demand and TravisCobra to help meet the "Continuing Extension Act of 2010"”

  1. Rebecca B Says:
    April 21st, 2010 at 11:20 AM

    I trust the renotification process will allow for individuals who incurred a Qualifying Event on or after April 1 and their Election Notice was printed BEFORE April 1. You post seems to indicate that it will not and I just wanted to make sure.

  2. MLondoff Says:
    April 21st, 2010 at 03:54 PM

    @Rebecca The system will pull anyone who has an event date after the date of deployment for WebCOBRA who has not received a package after the date of deployment. It will also re-notify those between the 1st and the deployment date.

  3. MJ Strong Says:
    April 26th, 2010 at 08:02 AM

    Was there an issue with the update? The old language comes up on our default templates.

  4. Morgan Says:
    April 26th, 2010 at 10:17 AM

    Was this update actually released? We never recieved it on Friday…

  5. Lorie Says:
    April 26th, 2010 at 10:41 AM

    Is there an update on this adjustment to WebCOBRA? I haven’t seen or heard anything further and this was going to be ready on Friday.

  6. MLondoff Says:
    April 26th, 2010 at 12:01 PM

    @ Lorie, @Morgan, and @MJ Strong The updates to both WebCOBRA On Demand and TravisCobra have been postponed and will be released within the next few days. Thanks for commenting.

  7. Matthew Says:
    April 27th, 2010 at 07:22 AM

    The renotification will include event dates that occur on 5/31/2010, correct? There were issues with the other releases in which the system was not including event dates occuring on 2/28/2010 or 3/31/2010.

  8. MLondoff Says:
    April 27th, 2010 at 11:42 AM

    @ Matthew The re-notification will include QBs having an event on or after 4/1/2010 and on or before 5/31/2010 that were notified prior to the date of installation of the update.

  9. Ross J Says:
    April 28th, 2010 at 11:02 AM

    We downloaded and installed the version 8.7 update last night, and we do not see where the “option to renotify individuals with qualifying-event dates between April 1 and May 31” is located. Our system did not generate any renotifications when we ran the automatic letters process, nor does there seem to be an option to manually create them using the manual letter process or the Utility menu. We have identified a number of QBs who need to be renotified, so we know that there are records in our system that should be picked up. Are we missing something?

  10. MLondoff Says:
    April 28th, 2010 at 11:40 AM

    Thanks for your comment. The option can be found under “Properties>Options>PQB>F. ARRA Options.” If you need any additional assistance, please contact Travis Support. They can be reached at 281.496.3737, select option 3.

  11. Lorie Says:
    April 29th, 2010 at 09:22 AM

    Can you tell me where the renotification is on the WebCOBRA system as well? Thanks

  12. MLondoff Says:
    April 29th, 2010 at 10:53 AM

    @ Lorie It can be found under the “Options” tab of the “Client/Employer Detail” screen. It is at the end of the “Cobra Election Notice Letter Set Options” section.

  13. Virginia Says:
    April 30th, 2010 at 11:45 AM

    Will WEBCOBRA renotice for those with a custom event? Is there anyway to manually re-notice those with a custom event?

  14. MLondoff Says:
    April 30th, 2010 at 01:32 PM

    @Virginia WebCOBRA will notify ALL events that occurred during the date rage of 4/1/2010 – 5/31/2010, regardless of the event type.

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