Tag Archives: Bureaucracy

The COBRA Maze

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Today, April 18, 2009, is COBRA Subsidy Notice Day -the deadline imposed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to send COBRA notices to those involuntarily terminated after September 1, 2008.

Not exactly the same as Paul Revere’s ride, the event 234 years memorialized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem and remembered in Massachusetts with Patriot’s Day.  With apologies to Hank, I offer this little ditty to memorialize the event occurring this year..

Listen my public and you shall cuss
About the COBRA part of the stimulus
Twas the eighteenth of April in twenty O nine
When out was tossed a feeble life line

Those who imagine that a “government run” health care system might mean more bureaucracy should spend some time familiarizing themselves with COBRA.

Certainly since the ARRA law was signed on February 19th and the regulations and additional “guidance” were released on March 30th, there has been ample opportunity.  Our office has been flooded with solicitations for seminars and webinars, and guidance form assorted professional organizations.

It is a sad reflection on the values of our society that an event as disruptive as job loss is compounded by the loss of health insurance.  COBRA was designed to alleviate that somewhat by permitting people to continue on their employer’s plan as long as they paid the full cost.  Very few – only those with expensive on going treatments – take advantage of it.  Continue reading →

COBRA – Stimulus or Bureaucracy?

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Does Congress really think they are doing anyone a favor with the new COBRA subsidy provision in the recently enacted stimulus package? capitol_art_160_20080314161058

Why can’t they make it simple?

Conservatives who fear “socialized” medicine because it will make medicine more bureaucratic should acquaint themselves with COBRA regulations. Litigation over COBRA keeps lawyers and judges busy all over the country.  And what does any of it have to do with the delivery of care?

What is COBRA anyway?  The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 was one of those huge (thus the word omnibus) budget bills that included everything from tobacco price supports to fishing fees for foreign fishing vessels.   But it will be remembered because Title X (of XX) included provisions to permit those who lose their health insurance under an employer sponsored health plan to continue their health insurance under certain conditions (called qualifying events) and provided they pay the full cost of the coverage.

Because, the person without coverage is also usually without a job, and because the person must pay the full cost (actually 102%) of the coverage, very few people elect the coverage and those that do are more likely chronically ill individuals.  In insurance parlance, that’s called adverse selection.  The plan sponsor will usually end up paying more than they receive in premiums.

So what did Congress and President Obama do with COBRA? 

The new law makes the cost of COBRA premiums slightly more affordable.  Normally, a 65% discount would seem pretty attractive.  But the average cost of one of our family plans exceeds $1,000.  $350 – 450 per month for a family with one less breadwinner is still a stiff price. images_2 Imagine selling a Lamborghini at 65% off!  $70,000 for a $200,000 car is a huge bargain.  But for someone without a job?

The new law allows those terminated between September 1,2008 and February 17, 2009 and who initially declined their COBRA election, another opportunity to elect the coverage at the reduced rate.  And they can begin their coverage March 1 instead of the date of the qualifying event.

Unlike regular COBRA, the subsidy is limited to those who are “involuntarily” terminated and their family members.  The plan sponsor can rely on the employees’ attestation that they were involuntarily terminated. Continue reading →

The Stimulus – The Good, the Ugly, and the Bad

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The Good

It looks like the stimulus package is on its way to becoming law.

The Good news is that health care safety net provision have survived somewhat intact.  The additional support for Medicaid and for COBRA continuation coverage are still in the package.  In addition the features of health care stimulus that encourage the development of the electronic medical record and research on the comparative effectiveness of treatments were only slightly modified.

The Ugly

The way those on the right react to these provisions is ugly.   I commented on this last week.  Not only do they see impending doom with each additional patch on our leaky health survival raft;  they have a way of turning long standing truths on their head and interpret liabilities of the current maze into positives.

Last week I pointed out right wing reactions to “comparative effectiveness research” and the electronic medical record.  Recently the Washington Times outrageously equated comparative effectiveness research with Nazism.  Most people reading or listening to the scares on this topic would assume the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is some new and sinister bureaucracy.  In fact, the office was created by executive order of President George W. Bush in 2004.  This was pointed out by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s Countdown.   Continue reading →

Administrative Simplification

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Sometimes people are magically teleported outside of their health care silo.

This happened to a group of our participants every month for several consecutive months.
At the beginning of each month one of the members of this group would call our office – “The doctor won’t treat me because he/she was told I have no health insurance.”
Our Plan had recently approved coverage for domestic partners.    Somehow, the computer system of one of our carriers could not properly interpret the code for a domestic partner.    The computer saw this adult as a child.   Continue reading →