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GEISSAL v. MOORE MEDICAL CORP.

Opinion of the Court

utes. The amendments to ERISA require an employer 5
who sponsors a group health plan to give the plan’s “qualiﬁed
beneﬁciaries” the opportunity to elect “continuation cover-
age” under the plan when the beneﬁciaries might otherwise
lose coverage upon the occurrence of certain “qualifying
events,” including the death of the covered employee, the
termination of the covered employee’s employment (except
in cases of gross misconduct), and divorce or legal separation
29 U. S. C. § 1163. Thus, a
from the covered employee.
“qualiﬁed beneﬁciary” entitled to make a COBRA election
may be a “covered employee” (someone covered by the em-
ployer’s plan because of his own employment), or a covered
employee’s spouse or dependent child who was covered by
the plan prior to the occurrence of the “qualifying event.”
§ 1167(3).

COBRA demands that the continuation coverage offered
to qualiﬁed beneﬁciaries be identical to what the plan pro-
vides to plan beneﬁciaries who have not suffered a qualifying
event.
§ 1162(1). The statute requires plans to advise ben-
eﬁciaries of their rights under COBRA both at the com-
mencement of coverage and within 14 days of learning of a
qualifying event,6 § 1166(a), after which qualiﬁed beneﬁciar-
ies have 60 days to elect continuation coverage, § 1165(1).
If
a qualiﬁed beneﬁciary makes a COBRA election, continua-
tion coverage dates from the qualifying event, and when the
event is termination or reduced hours, the maximum period
of coverage is generally 18 months; in other cases, it is gener-
ally 36.
§ 1162(2)(A). The beneﬁciary who makes the elec-
tion must pay for what he gets, however, up to 102 percent
of the “applicable premium” for the ﬁrst 18 months of contin-
§ 1162(3).
uation coverage, and up to 150 percent thereafter.

5 Employers with fewer than 20 employees are exempt from COBRA’s

requirements.

29 U. S. C. § 1161(b).

6 Under § 1166(a)(2), an employer has a duty to report most qualifying
events, including the termination of employment, to its group health plan
administrator within 30 days of the qualifying event.