Title I of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change
or lose their jobs. In 1997, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act (HIPAA) added yet another layer of administrative responsibility to the employer.
Employers are required to provide HIPAA certificates of creditable coverage to any
employee or dependent that ceases to have group health coverage.
Researching the data needed to accurately complete a HIPAA certificate is time consuming.
And it is vital that certificates are issued in the same time-frame as a COBRA
notification to ensure compliance. Employers must be prepared to reissue certificates
upon request, up to two years after the initial certificate is generated, and answer
all questions generated by certificate bearers. And, as with any federal regulation,
employers must maintain documentation of the work for seven years.
Employees and dependents participating in a group health plan have the following
HIPAA rights and protections:
- Employees who meet the health plan's eligibility requirements have the right to
enroll in the health plan with limits on the length of preexisting condition exclusions
and when exclusions can be applied
- Employees have special enrollment rights when they lose other coverage or gain new
dependents
- Employees cannot be discriminated against based on their health factors
The managerial tasks for HIPAA certification are time consuming.
Outsourcing this process along with your COBRA administration will
ensure accurate legal and regulatory compliance, reducing Human Resource’s
administrative costs and daily efforts.
