Know your benefits

COBRA keeps you covered

May 22, 2008 2:55 PM

Are you or a family member — because of a change of job or other life circumstance — going to lose your Department of Education-provided health insurance and UFT Welfare Fund benefits?

You and your family have the right to buy health coverage from your former employer for either up to 18 months (29 months if Social Security disability) or up to 36 months depending on the qualifying event.

As set by federal law, the DOE and the UFT Welfare Fund allow you to buy health coverage at a rate of 102 percent of the actual cost. You pay the premium yourself when you continue health coverage under COBRA, but it is less expensive than individual insurance of a similar caliber.

You must file a COBRA application within 60 days of losing your health insurance. Ask your school’s payroll secretary for the New York City COBRA application (EB7). On that form, you indicate that you want to continue your basic medical/hospital insurance. You can elect to also continue your UFT Welfare Fund benefits, which include prescription drugs and optical and dental benefits.

If you choose to buy your basic health insurance, be aware that you will not automatically continue to receive UFT Welfare Fund benefits. You must fill out a separate UFT Welfare Fund COBRA application. To expedite the processing of your application for UFT Welfare Fund COBRA benefits, you can send a copy of the New York City COBRA application form directly to the UFT Welfare Fund or you can call the UFT Welfare Fund at 1-212-539-0500 to request a COBRA application. The Welfare Fund COBRA application will give you the option to purchase some or all of the Welfare Fund health benefits.

‘Qualifying events’

You, as well as your spouse/domestic partner and dependent children, are eligible for 18 months of COBRA continuation coverage if you lose health coverage because:

1. you resigned or were terminated for any reason other than gross misconduct; or

2. your hours were reduced.

Your spouse/domestic partner may also purchase COBRA continuation coverage for up to 36 months following one of these events:

1. your death;

2. divorce or legal separation from you; or

3. termination of a domestic partnership with you.

Your dependent child is eligible for COBRA for up to 36 months following one of these qualifying events:

1. your death;

2. your son or daughter no longer can claim “dependent child” status because he or she

• is 19 or older and not enrolled full time in college;
• is a full-time college student but loses eligibility on Dec. 31 of the year in which he or she turned 23; or
• is a full-time college student who graduates; or
• gets married.

 

Special leave of absence coverage

When you take a medically approved unpaid leave of absence for restoration of health (including pregnancy-related disability leave), you may continue to receive your basic health insurance and UFT Welfare Fund benefits for up to four months through the DOE’s Special Leave of Absence Coverage (SLOAC). The UFT Welfare Fund will pick up the full cost of your existing health insurance, in addition to continuing to provide Welfare Fund benefits, for up to eight more months within the same 12-month period up to the length of your medically approved leave of absence for restoration of health (whichever ends first).

Your school’s payroll office must file DOE form EB1054 to activate your SLOAC benefits.

Continuation of health coverage (up to 12 months) is also available to paraprofessionals on an approved leave while receiving Workers’ Compensation.

You must return to work for a full payroll period to be eligible for further SLOAC benefits.