Travis Software Official Blog

In some cases, former employees are rehired as current employees of a company, and therefore need to be reactivated to Active Employee status in WebCOBRA. Because it is May and the end of the academic school year is quickly approaching, plan administrators for teachers, for example, may need to convert these Active Employees into Qualified Beneficiaries in WebCOBRA, as teachers are often considered “terminated” from current employee status at the end of each academic school year (usually May or June).

Some of these teachers are then re-hired as current employees at the beginning of the next academic school year (usually August or September). WebCOBRA® currently allows a User to re-activate a non-archived former employee to Active Employee status and maintain the participant’s data throughout each status change.

The WebCOBRA re-activation process eliminates the need for an Administrator to re-enter employee information in situations where such an employee is hired, then terminated, and later rehired. The system keeps all history, actions and correspondence previously stored in the system while the employee was a participant. In addition, the re-activation process automatically generates a notification of the status change and the system continues to store the requisite information after the status change takes effect.

When a participant is entered into the system as an Active Employee and later incurs a qualifying event, WebCOBRA maintains the participant’s record in the system and merely records the data as “Inactive.” Through the “Employee Reactivation Wizard,” WebCOBRA restores the participant’s record to “Active” status. Because WebCOBRA keeps a record of all the participant’s information, and QB records are not removed, once a QB is reactivated to an active employee, that QB record will still exist but will be set to “Inactive” status.

An Active Employee in the system can be converted to a QB and back to an Active Employee as many times as is necessary to properly reflect the status of the Employee. (The “Employee Reactivation Wizard” is only available for participants who were initially entered into WebCOBRA as an Employee and who have not been archived.) The following three scenarios provide the steps required for a former employee in the system to be re-activated or “rehired,” allowing a conversion back to Active Employee status through the Employee Reactivation Wizard:

1. The former employee was initially entered into the system as an Active Employee and was never converted to a Qualified Beneficiary. In this case, the Employee Reactivation Wizard will re-activate the existing Employee record in the system and give you the opportunity to send a General Notice and update their creditable coverage information.

2. The former employee was originally entered into WebCOBRA as an Active Employee, was later converted to a Qualified Beneficiary and is actively on COBRA coverage. The Employee Reactivation Wizard prompts several activities in the system. First, the QB will be set up for manual termination from COBRA coverage. Then, a new Employee record will be created to reflect the original creditable coverage information that was supplied when they were initially entered as an Active Employee. The Employee Reactivation Wizard allows you to update this information and send new notices. This includes the new “Manual Termination and Rehire” letter.

3. The former employee was originally entered into WebCOBRA as an Active Employee, was later converted to a Qualified Beneficiary and terminated from COBRA coverage. In this situation, the terminated QB’s information is copied to create a new Active Employee record. The new Active Employee record will reflect the original creditable coverage information that was supplied when they were initially entered as an Active Employee. The Employee Reactivation Wizard allows you to update this information and send new notices.

For more information about the “Employee Reactivation Wizard” and step-by-step instructions for executing these Qualified Beneficiary to Active Employee conversions (or vice versa), please refer to the “QBs and Employees” chapter in your WebCOBRA User’s Manual.