Q.- We have an employee who will be enrolling in Medicare Part A in April and then plans to retire in June. How long will COBRA coverage be available to him and his spouse?
A.- The employee will be entitled to 18 months of COBRA continuation coverage from the loss of health coverage in connection with his retirement (the qualifying event date- June). The employee’s spouse will be entitled to 36 months of COBRA continuation coverage from the date of the employee’s Medicare enrollment (April). This assumes the employee’s Medicare enrollment in April does not cut off his right to health coverage under the terms of your active employee health plan.