Have you recently lost your job and are worried
about your medical coverage? Or perhaps you are thinking of quitting your job
but fear your new employer’s health insurance provider will reject you for
coverage due to a preexisting medical condition? Whether you lose your job or
you choose to find new employment elsewhere, the government has two programs
that can help: COBRA and HIPPAA.
Have you recently lost your job and are worried about your
medical coverage? Or perhaps you are thinking of quitting your job but fear
your new employer’s health insurance provider will reject you for coverage due
to a preexisting medical condition? Whether you lose your job or you choose to
find new employment elsewhere, the government has two programs that can help:
COBRA and HIPPAA. These programs protect your coverage in the event you need to
switch employers.
COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reduction Act
of 1985. It allows for employees to extend their health coverage whenever their
employer’s provided policy ends for any of the following reasons: your employer
terminates your position, as a covered spouse your coverage gets terminated due
to a divorce or legal separation, you become disabled, your company reduces the
amount of hours you can work and the result is you are no longer eligible for
coverage due to not working the minimal amount of hours required to
acquire/maintain insurance, the insurance-providing employee dies and leaves
the spouse and/or children without medical coverage. In most states, this form
of extended coverage is limited to companies with 20 or more employees.
However, a few states have reduced the minimum amount of employees to 2. Check
with your insurance expert to determine what the current minimums are for your
state.
From the day you leave your job (or your position is
otherwise terminated under the above listed conditions), you have 60 days to
elect to continue your coverage as outlined under COBRA. Once you officially
elect to continue coverage through the COBRA program, you have 45 days to pay
retroactive premiums. Once you have paid any back-due fees, your policy will
resume and remain active until any of the following occurs: you voluntarily
terminate it, premiums are not paid within 30 days of the due date, a covered
person becomes eligible under another policy or by Medicare, the employer
discontinues offering group coverage to all of its employees, the COBRA
continuation period has reached its maximum.
HIPPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability act of 1996. It allows for individuals to switch companies and
be accepted under the new employer’s program regardless of preexisting medical
conditions. Imagine having an expensive medical condition that is currently
covered under your present employer. Now imagine you need to relocate or
perhaps get offered a more lucrative form of employment at another company. In
this situation, HIPPAA protects you from being handcuffed to your current job
for health insurance purposes; the new employer’s provider must accept you.
A few of the areas where an individual is protected under
HIPPAA are as follows: pregnancy and prenatal health problems cannot be
considered preexisting conditions, acknowledging credit for any prior insurance
policy coverage during the previous 12 months (limits the preexisting time
frame), limiting the length of time a preexisting condition can apply to 12
months, requires that providers cannot decline health coverage to new employees
based on health insurance reasons only.
Between HIPPAA and COBRA, individuals who have their
employment terminated early or who otherwise must leave their current
employment while having an existing medical condition and fear losing their
insurance, are protected from losing their coverage altogether. Check with your
insurance expert to determine how COBRA and HIPPAA can help you with your
current employment situation.
{youtube|100|campaign}
