Health insurance benefits will run out sooner than perhaps expected for about 120 former Utah State University employees who took early retirement or buyouts earlier this year.
To encourage voluntary separations, the school offered to continue covering those who chose to retire, but failed to tell them that the term they would be eligible for COBRA insurance benefits, which typically last 18 to 36 months, would run concurrently with the school coverage, meaning that most of the former employees won’t be eligible for COBRA when their school coverage expires.
The span of continuing school coverage ranges from six months to six years depending upon the individual employees’ age and years of service.
“That was such a crazy time. It just slipped through,” said USU Human Resources Executive Director BrandE Faupell.
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The university sent letters to former employees just before Thanksgiving informing them of the COBRA terms.
“We needed to let them know we were running the COBRA clock concurrently,” said Faupell, explaining that the school has not altered terms but rather failed to communicate explicitly the policies already in place.
“This does not change anything,” said Faupell. “The outcome is no different. All we’re doing is complying with a requirement.”
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