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Jr712 OP t1_iuafjtt wrote

Reply to comment by kepler1 in Starting a new job in Nov or Dec. Family has high medical costs and we've met our OOP max this year. Am I best off using COBRA until EOY? by Jr712

I see. Well there’s really no need to wait and see in my case. My child receives daily therapies which cost about $2k per week. It’s consistent and never ending. So we might as well immediately sign up for the Cobra.

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kepler1 t1_iuahwqr wrote

I see, then it makes sense. Just be sure to google/look into the "what if I have 2 health plans, coordination of benefits" issue. I.e. how do I make sure my COBRA old plan continues to be regarded as the primary plan until it expires.

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Jr712 OP t1_iuaqpeo wrote

From what I’m reading you can’t have COBRA if you’re also receiving coverage through an employer. I believe when I start the new job I should be able to decline coverage for the remaining days in 2022 thus qualifying me for COBRA and just enroll for coverage starting in 2023 at which point COBRA would be dropped.

I’ve never done this so if I’m making any bad assumptions please let me know.

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kepler1 t1_iuau1md wrote

Your situation is definitely more complicated than usual, so I would get HR verification of your assumptions in writing.

I don't know how your scenario would work unless you mean, you decline coverage as a new employee, and then because it's open enrollment season for 2023, you elect next year's coverage. This may be complicated -- depends on how the company HR policies work. Maybe because you're starting so soon to the end of the year, they assume your choices carry over to 2023? What you want to avoid is a situation / misunderstanding where you declined coverage, and you actually declined it for the next year as well.

So investigate thoroughly with your new company's signup policy.

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Jr712 OP t1_iuaw0ib wrote

Yeah I need to confirm if I can separately decline coverage for the rest of this year and just enroll for next year starting in January. Is that the main potential issue you’re seeing?

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kepler1 t1_iuay4pf wrote

Yes, I agree, that is the main issue and if you can get clear confirmation that that is how the company would handle it, I think you would be in the clear.

If you cannot get that clear confirmation, out of safety I might just enroll assuming that your choices will apply for rest of this year and into next year, and that you will begin your new job's health plan as soon as you start work.

Now here is a bit of gray area up to your discretion/judgement: You might try enrolling in COBRA anyway and submitting claims under your old plan. As you said, you're not supposed to have COBRA once you have another health plan, but maybe the systems are not in sync to tell each other that very well, especially for a new employee enrolling in the middle of a month towards the end of a calendar year. Maybe the worst that could happen is that an expense/claim gets bounced back and you have to claim it under your new plan. (and you would be out the COBRA premium as it didn't end up being used as you thought) It all depends on whether the cost/risk of doing this is worth the difference in out of pocket expenditure you're saving.

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shadow_chance t1_iuejp6r wrote

I think you could have COBRA and your new employer's coverage for 2022 but it wouldn't make any financial sense if you've already met your OOP max.

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