COBRA

Eligibility

Certain events make you eligible for up to 18 months of COBRA, including:

• You voluntarily leave Stanford
• You retire from Stanford
• Stanford ends your employment for any reason, unless you were terminated because of gross misconduct
• The number of hours you are scheduled to work at Stanford is reduced below that required for benefits eligibility
• You become disabled

In some cases, your covered dependents can continue coverage up to 36 months, such as:

• You are divorced or legally separated
• You die while you are covered under eligible plans
• Your dependent no longer qualifies as a covered dependent

If you get divorced, your ex-spouse can continue coverage under COBRA for up to 36 months. Ex-spouses are not allowed to remain as covered dependents on university plans. Stanford provides the same amount of continued coverage to registered domestic partners or same-sex spouses. Learn more in Life Events.

NOTE FOR RETIREES
If you are enrolled in Medicare Parts A or B at the time you become eligible for COBRA, you can elect COBRA. However, if you are already enrolled in COBRA and you subsequently enroll in Medicare Part A or B, your COBRA coverage will be terminated effective the date you are enrolled in Part A or B. Read about Medicare Eligibility.

• Once you make any required COBRA premium payments, you’ll become eligible for services in your insurance carrier’s database.
• Premiums are 102 percent of the full group rate.
• If you have an 11-month disability extension, your premium will be 150 percent of the plan’s total cost of coverage.
• If you receive a COBRA premium subsidy, we’ll pay a portion of your medical premiums for the first three months, as long as you enroll for COBRA and pay your share. At the end of three months, you’re responsible for the full COBRA cost. There is no subsidy for dental or vision, so you pay the full cost for these plans.
• Cal-COBRA, the state version of the federal plan, is available to HMO plan participants in California when federal COBRA ends. Contact Vita Companies with any questions.
• If you are enrolled in an HMO plan and move out of the service area, you can immediately switch to another available plan and continue your COBRA at the new rate. Contact Vita Companies to report your new address and make the change.
• If applicable, you’ll be offered COBRA to continue your health care FSA; if you don’t enroll in COBRA, you can still submit eligible FSA claims through April 30 for the previous plan year, but only for services incurred before the end of the month in which you terminate.

NOTE
If you receive an MCAP subsidy, it ends the last day of the month in which your employment ends and is not considered part of Stanford’s contribution toward COBRA.
 

If you exhaust COBRA or lose COBRA eligibility, under the HIPAA Special Enrollment Rights you may enroll in a group health plan or a Health Insurance Marketplace plan outside of the annual Open Enrollment period.

• Examples: If you lose eligibility for group health coverage, you may be able to special enroll in a spouse's plan. A dependent losing eligibility for group health coverage may be able to enroll in a different parent's group health plan.

If you choose to terminate COBRA early with no special enrollment opportunity at that time, you generally will have to wait to enroll in other coverage during the next open enrollment period for eligible group health plans or Marketplace plans.