Q.- A COBRA participant is asking for his spouse to be added to his COBRA coverage since she exhausted her own COBRA coverage. Doesn’t his request have to be made within 30 days of her loss of coverage?
A.- At this time, he has longer than 30 days to ask to add his spouse to his COBRA coverage. The IRS extended the HIPAA Special Enrollment Event notice timeframe during the COVID National Emergency. Group health plans subject to ERISA must disregard the period from March 1, 2020 until 60 days after the announced end of the National Emergency when determining the date by which the COBRA participant has ask the plan to enroll his spouse.
