364 / For how long must COBRA continuation coverage generally be provided?

COBRA continuation coverage must be provided from the date of a qualifying event until the earliest of any of the following events:

1. the passage of the maximum required period of coverage;


2. the date the employer ceases to provide any group health plan to any employee;


3. the date coverage ceases under the plan by reason of a failure to make timely payment of the applicable premium ( Q 368);


4. the date the qualified beneficiary first becomes covered as an employee or otherwise after the date of the election under any other plan providing health care that does not contain any exclusion or limit with respect to any pre-existing condition of the beneficiary other than an exclusion or limitation that does not apply to, or is satisfied by, the beneficiary by reason of the portability, access, and renewability requirements for group health plans found in the IRC as well as in similar sections of ERISA and the Public Health Service Act;


5. the date the qualified beneficiary, other than a retired covered employee or a spouse, surviving spouse, or dependent child of the covered employee, first becomes entitled to Medicare benefits after the date of the election; or


6. in the case of a qualified beneficiary who is disabled at any time during the first 60 days of continuation coverage, the month that begins more than 30 days after the date when the Social Security Administration has made a final determination under Title II or XVI of the Social Security Act that the beneficiary is no longer disabled.¹

Applying a strict reading of IRC Section 4980B(f)(2)(B), the U.S. Supreme Court found that an employee whose employment has been terminated is eligible to elect COBRA continuation coverage under the employee’s former employer’s group health plan despite the fact that the employee also had coverage under another plan offered by the employee’s spouse’s employer at the time the employee’s employment was terminated. In effect, the Court concluded that an employee with coverage under another plan at the time of termination of employment does not fall within the requirement that the qualified beneficiary first becomes, after the date of the election, covered under any other medical care plan.²

A federal government plan is not considered another plan providing health care for this purpose, because the federal government is not an employer under IRC Section 5000(d). Thus, eligibility for a federal government group health plan will not terminate COBRA continuation coverage.³

Being entitled to Medicare benefits is defined not as mere eligibility for benefits, but as actual enrollment in either Part A or Part B of Medicare.⁴ Entitlement to Medicare benefits will not terminate the obligation to provide continuation coverage to qualified beneficiaries entitled to continuation coverage by virtue of a proceeding in a case under the federal bankruptcy law. See Q 365 for a detailed discussion of the exceptions to the maximum required period of coverage.