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benefit termination
Discuss employment-law issues such as family leave, overtime, disabilities law, harassment, immigration and termination.
earlier in the year due to a rough winter I had to cancel our companies fell behind in payments to our group health insurance and it was cancelled.
A previous employee of mine used his insurance card
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Forums » Topic Forums » Legal Forum » benefit termination
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benefit termination
posted at 7/14/1999 7:25 AM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 7/14/1999 Last: 7/14/1999 |
earlier in the year due to a rough winter I had to cancel our companies fell behind in payments to our group health insurance and it was cancelled.
A previous employee of mine used his insurance card before I was notified of the cancellation . His benefits where denied when billing sent the statement to the insurance carrier. My question then am I liable for this employee's medical bills ? |
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benefit termination
posted at 7/14/1999 5:42 PM EDT
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Posts: 2217
First: 6/16/1999 Last: 12/13/2001 |
The short answer is: Maybe.
There are two issues in play here. (1) COBRA. Usually, when an employee's coverage in a health plan terminates, COBRA requires the plan administrator to send notice to the covered employees and their dependents of the right to continue health coverage at the group rate. COBRA generally does not apply when the plan is terminated, as opposed to when the employee's coverage in the plan is terminated. Thus, there could be COBRA implications to this situation. (I should note that this is a plan termination of the employer, so it is quite possible COBRA does not apply. It is also possible that the employer is not the plan administrator under this plan, so the employer might not be liable anyway.) (2) If an employer is found to have a contractual obligation of some kind to provide health benefits (i.e., its policies can be binding employment policies, it is a party to an employment agreement, it has a collective bargaining agreement,or it has held itself out as having coverage and the employees have relied on that representation, etc.), then the employer's failure to maintain benefits could be found to be improper. I recommend you consult with a good labor and employment lawyer to explore your situation in detail. |
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