Changes to Your Employee Benefit Plans

As an employee that receives employee benefits, it is your responsibility to submit any changes to your dependent status. The changes you make must remain consistent. You are also required to make these changes no later than 31 days after the event occurs. If a participant falters to submit these changes in time, they may be denied further health care under COBRA. COBRA may also request that you pay for any medical expenses for non-eligible dependents.

In most cases, these changes to your dependent status can be made and submitted online, making it simpler for employee benefit plan participants to fulfill the requirements. Some of the events that you’re responsible to make necessary changes for include:

• Birth
• Death
• Adoption
• Divorce
• Domestic Partnership
• Dissolution
• Marriage

The Perks of Hiring an Insurance Broker

One of the most beneficial things about hiring a dependable insurance broker is that you can go to them with any changes that may need to be made to your employee benefit plans. Even as a business owner, the requests you receive from those working for you may get extremely overwhelming. These requests can easily be gathered and given to your insurance broker. Your broker will then make the following changes right away so that neither your employees nor your business are penalized under federal law.

Nowadays, online options are also available. As an employer or employee, you may be given access to online tools that help you change your dependent status more quickly. Once the changes are submitted over the Internet, they are likely to be logged right away so that you can meet the time restrictions of COBRA.