Q.- A former employee’s 18 months of COBRA will end 6/30/22. He will be going on Medicare 6/1/22. He thinks this is a second qualifying event and his spouse should be entitled to a total of 36 months of COBRA coverage. Is that true?
A.- A covered employee’s Medicare entitlement cannot be a second qualifying event for a spouse if the covered employee’s Medicare entitlement would not have caused a loss of coverage for the spouse under the active plan. Since most group health plans are prohibited from allowing Medicare entitlement to cause a loss of coverage for active employees, Medicare entitlement for a continuant will rarely be a second qualifying event. If under your active employee plan, an employee would lose health coverage upon Medicare entitlement, there would be a 2nd qualifying event for the spouse. If your plan does not terminate coverage upon Medicare entitlement, there is no 2nd qualifying event.
