Travis Software Official Blog

Travis is currently working to add a new Qualifying Event entitled “HCTC/VEBA Eligibility.” This Qualifying Event includes a 72.5% subsidy that is automatically applied and expires at the end of 2013.

A court recently approved the creation of an “Auto Retiree VEBA Trust,” which is a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association designed to provide health benefits to eligible retired auto workers. A VEBA provides a way for employers to make a one-time contribution and satisfy the health liabilities of retirees. This VEBA is unique in that it is not tied to any one employer, but covers regional eligible retirees in the auto industry.

As Travis welcomes the new year 2012, we wanted to take a moment to briefly discuss the landmark events that occurred during 2011 and let you know of the exciting new things that are planned for 2012!

We hope that each of you are off to a great start in 2012 and are pleased to have another year of annual enrollment period behind you!

Travis had an “interesting” 2011. Organizationally, the most visible change was that Alan Williams, Travis’ Founder, stepped back from the business so that Lauren Williams, his daughter, could take over the day-to-day operations of the company. Alan is certainly still involved in the company, but he is just spending more time away from the office.

Since the beginning of 2011, in only 6 short weeks, Travis has added nine new features and capabilities to WebCOBRA®, making it even more efficient and beneficial to your COBRA administration needs. These recently released enhancements fall in the categories of general functionality, letters/notices, and reports.

Recently released enhancements include…

The “Letter Preferences App” is the newest addition to WebCOBRA. Utilizing the InstaData Web Service, this app allows users to remove unwanted letters and re-order correspondence before they print.

With the InstaData Web Service, users can easily access WebCOBRA data for any purpose they choose. The Web Service gives users access to live data, giving users a data source to write custom reports or other integration programs, with an “IT Friendly” interface.

With the Letter App, Travis has now gone beyond simply providing the real-time data to actually creating a convenient desktop tool for users. The Letter Preferences App specifically allows users to “re-download” letters from a previously accepted correspondence batch, choose which letters to print, and apply custom sorting and grouping parameters.

Users may have noticed that there are ongoing updates to the reports in WebCOBRA. New and updated reports are now formatted to resemble a spreadsheet design so that they are easily viewed and modified in Microsoft Excel.

In the report below, for example, “PlanSponsors, Inc.” would have been a section title. Now, the Carrier/Sponsor name is repeated in every row, so when the report is exported to Excel, the associated data is easily modified. In addition to the updated formatting, many reports now feature several new options, including sorting by Department, masking SSNs, and displaying only active plans.

In addition to releasing Version 8.8 of TravisCobra on August 31^st, we also want to let you know about several additional enhancements to TravisCobra that are in development now.

Since June WebCOBRA users have noticed an uptick in the number of enhancements Travis has added to the system. Also, the pace of enhancement has quickened. Our plan is to continue to update WebCOBRA with new features, and we are working on some pretty significant enhancements.

As part of our efforts to continue improving the WebCOBRA On Demand service, Travis has released several new enhancements during the last month, making it even more efficient, user-friendly, and beneficial to your COBRA administration needs.

Effective June 1, 2010, the ARRA language, ARRA posters, and “Request for Treatment as an Assistance Eligible Individual (AEI)” will not be included automatically in the default letters prepared by TravisCobra^TM and WebCOBRA for individuals with a qualifying event on or after June 1, 2010.

For the past several months, Travis’ developers have been working on significant improvements to WebCOBRA On Demand that are now either in the final stages of development or in our Quality Assurance/Testing process. The efforts have been delayed by the repeated changes to COBRA and ARRA over the past months which have required “all hands on deck” efforts by our staff to produce releases for you very quickly.

Even with all the ARRA releases, we have made progress on programming these major new improvements. They are now scheduled to be added to WebCOBRA over the next few months, and are close enough to delivery that we wanted to tell you about them.

Customer satisfaction is a top priority for Travis Software Corp., and Travis is working hard to make sure our customers know it. One way we are trying to improve customer satisfaction is to decrease the amount of time that a customer must wait to speak with a live support representative. Due to recent improvements, Travis support is currently providing the shortest hold time ever attained. The average hold time is typically less than one (1) minute.

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 TravisCobra^TM to help you meet the requirements of this new law.

[Updated 4/26/2010] We plan to have the new release of TravisCobra^TM delivered to TravisCobra^TM 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).

Travis Software Corp. is dedicated to providing customers with the most up-to-date COBRA Administration system. Recently, Travis reviewed New York state continuation laws and has updated the system to provide up to 36 months of continuation coverage regardless of qualifying event.

In the past year, many submissions from the Travis Ideabook have made their way into our Travis Systems! Every year we add new features to our Travis products, and many of them come from you, our Travis Customers.

On March 2, 1010, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“ARRA”) was amended by the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 (H.R. 4691) (the “Act”) which, among other things, extends eligibility for the COBRA premium subsidy through March 31, 2010. The Act also includes a measure that extends premium assistance to eligible individuals that had or have a reduction of hours between September 1, 2008 and March 31, 2010 but did not elect COBRA coverage due to that qualifying event, and that later incur an involuntary termination of employment on or after March 2, 2010. Plan Administrators have new election period and notice responsibilities for such individuals.