If more than 12 months have passed since your enrollment date, a pre-existing condition exclusion cannot be applied to your new coverage. He signed up for his employer's group health plan on the same day, as soon as he was eligible to do so. He has no waiting period. Because more than 12 months have passed since his enrollment date, no pre-existing condition exclusion can be applied. If you are eligible for such continuation coverage, it counts as creditable coverage.
Special enrollment is required in two situations.
You or your dependent lose other health coverage To get a special enrollment opportunity in this situation, the employee or dependent must earlier have turned down coverage available through the group health plan because he or she had other coverage. A special enrollment period also must be given if the employer sponsoring the group health plan stops paying its share of the premiums. You get a new dependent through marriage, birth, adoption, or placement for adoption with you. If the triggering event is a birth, adoption or placement for adoption, the child, the employee, and the employee's spouse are entitled to special enrollment, either individually or in any combination. For each triggering event, a special enrollee is regarded as a regular enrollee and not a late enrollee.