Market Areas > Human Resources >COBRA Compliance

COBRA Compliance: Take the Bite out of Costly Violations

Course Description:

Congress passed the landmark Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) over 20 years ago. Yet, today employers still face challenges complying with its provisions.  Some are even completely surprised when they’re sued for non-compliance because they had no idea they were even out of compliance.

Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security just because you haven’t had any COBRA problems to date.  Even if you only have a few COBRA Qualifying Events a year, your organization needs to know how to manage this complex regulation.

Four Fast Facts:

1. Employers — not their insurers or third party administrators — are primarily liable for COBRA violations.
2. An employer's exposure for non-compliance can be significant. One employer's errors resulted in a court case claiming $100 million dollars in damages.
3. Statistics show that claims of COBRA continuees typically average 150 percent higher than the claims of active employees, even though a COBRA continuee can only be charged 102 percent of the applicable, total plan premium.
4. The greater cost of COBRA is attributable to the health care claims of COBRA continuees and the cost of health care benefits that are continued only because of improper COBRA administration.

Join CCM and COBRA expert, Linda E. Rosenzweig, in this practical audio conference to find out how to prevent costly errors and ensure you understand the total process of notifying, tracking, and documenting all facets of compliance with COBRA’s highly complex regulations.

Key Course Benefits:

• Understand the complexities of COBRA coverage: Who is eligible, and who is not

• Find out how to identify and define a “qualifying event”

• Take the guesswork out of compliance liability: Where does the employer’s end?

• Learn the most common COBRA mistakes and how to avoid them

• Gain insight into the record-keeping requirements COBRA entails

• Map out the time-line of steps involved in COBRA compliance

• Discover how to properly handle COBRA notices: Delivery, receipt and content

You’ll also get the answers to your specific questions in the live Q&A session following the course presentation.

Featured Faculty:

Linda E. Rosenzweig, Of Counsel, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Linda E. Rosenzweig has been practicing in the area of employee benefits and employment law for more than 30  years.  Ms. Rosenzweig's employee benefits experience, designing plans and representing clients in litigation and before Federal agencies responsible for the enforcement of ERISA, permits her to offer expertise in the entire range of employee benefits, including labor and tax issues, executive compensation, fiduciary issues, and compliance issues for retirement, health and other welfare benefits.  Ms. Rosenzweig's knowledge and experience also extend to the federal employment discrimination laws, Medicare secondary payer rules, and mergers and acquisitions.  In addition, she has particular expertise in all aspects of the plan termination process, both with respect to plans seeking a reversion upon termination and on issues of employer liability for plans terminating in or outside of a bankruptcy proceeding.  She served as the Executive Assistant to the General Counsel at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Ms. Rosenzweig is the Secretary and President-Elect of the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area Chapter of the Worldwide Employee Benefits (“WEB”) Network. Ms. Rosenzweig is a Charter Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, and and a member of its Northeast Region Nominating Committee.  She is the 2001 recipient of the American Bar Association's Edmund S. Muskie Pro Bono Award, which she received for her work as the founder and Director of a Pilot Pension Dispute Resolution Project. She was the Chair of the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Interest Group of the American Bar Association Health Section, and the Section’s Liaison to the ABA's Joint Committee on Employee Benefits.  In addition, Ms. Rosenzweig previously served for two terms as the Chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the ABA's Tort and Insurance Practice Section.  She is also member of the ABA's Tax and Labor Sections' Employee Benefits Committees.  She is named as a Recommended Lawyer in Global Counsel 3000 and the PLC Which lawyer? Yearbook 2008. 

Ms. Rosenzweig has published numerous articles, is the author of the COBRA Handbook (Second Edition) and the Pension Answer Book (Fifth Edition), and co-editor of OFCCP and Federal Contract Compliance (PLI).  She has spoken nationally on all aspects of employee benefits, including HIPAA privacy issues, deferred compensation (Section 409A), COBRA compliance, fiduciary obligations, compensation of service provider issues, preemption of state laws, age and sex discrimination, and participant communications. 

MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE:

We're so confident you'll get what you want out of this conference that we'll refund every penny if you're not completely satisfied. No questions asked! It's 100% risk-free!

Pricing:

Unable to Attend?  Order the CD!
Your CD recording includes the complete audio conference presentation, audience Q&A and presentation materials.

APPROVED FOR RECERTIFICATION CREDIT:

HRCI - Receive 1.5 recertification credit hours toward PHR and SPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). For more information about certification or recertification, please visit the HRCI homepage at www.hrci.org.

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