October 1st, 2013, marks a deadline for employers to provide one of two written notices on the new health care exchanges (also known as “marketplaces”) to their employees. In addition to these notices, a COBRA Election Notice must be completed and ready for distribution to eligible employees before this deadline. Beginning October 1st, these exchanges are scheduled to begin accepting applications for coverage that would go into effect on January 1st, 2014. Colorado’s exchange, known as Connect for Health Colorado, is ready to launch on October 1st.
The first exchange notice, entitled “New Health Insurance Marketplace Coverage Options and Your Health Coverage”, is designed for employers who presently offer a health plan to some or all of their employees. This notice must be completed by the employer and distributed prior to October 1st to all current employees (whether they are on the health plan or not) and to all new employees hired after the October 1st deadline within two weeks of hire – even if they are not currently eligible for health insurance. This notice is a one-time issuance that must be distributed by the employer. Currently there is no requirement in place to distribute this notice annually, but many experts have speculated that such a requirement could be implemented in the future.
The second exchange notice, also entitled “New Health Insurance Marketplace Coverage Options and Your Health Coverage”, is designed for employers who do not presently offer a health plan to their employees. The requirements and stipulations are identical to the first notice as outlined in the previous paragraph.
The third notice, the COBRA Election Notice, has been revised to notify qualified beneficiaries of the new exchanges; plan administrators are advised to have the new notice completed and ready for distribution to eligible employees by October 1st. This notice notice must be provided to qualified beneficiaries within 14 days after the plan administrator receives notice of a qualifying event, and to employees already on the COBRA program. A third-party COBRA administrator can assume responsibility for distributing the notice to employees.