If your former employer provided a health plan that included dental coverage or a separate dental-insurance plan, you can carry that over through COBRA coverage. If the employer submitted to separate health insurance plans for medical, vision and dental coverage, you may select which coverages you want to carry under COBRA. If you were covered for all three under one plan provided by your former employer, you must elect to continue with the entire plan.
If you are on COBRA or will be losing your INDIVIDUAL dental coverage in the next 90 days, you can get you dental insurance Guaranteed! No Pre-Existing Conditions? Coverage cannot be denied for any reason if applied for within required time frames.
COBRA Subsidy and Dental
The COBRA subsidy is generally available for COBRA continuation coverage under any group health plan, including medical, dental and vision coverage. However, it does not apply to a flexible spending arrangement (FSA) offered under a cafeteria plan
COBRA Dental Insurance billing
Your initial bill will cover the period retroactive to the date you lost group dental coverage. The first payment must be received within 45 days of the date of your election or the effective date of your coverage, whichever is later. All future payments are due on the (usually the 1st) day of each month specified by plan rules.
Under COBRA, there is a 30-day grace period in which to make up delinquent payments without permanently losing the ability to maintain continuation coverage. If you fail to make the required rate payment within the grace period, your coverage will be terminated permanently with no opportunity for reinstatement.
Continuation coverage will not be reinstated until payment is received.
You need to notify the plan administrator divorce or legal separation for COBRA is essential to preserve your continuation rights under a former spouse’s health insurance plan.
COBRA Dental and Divorce
Notify the plan administrator within 60 days after the date of the divorce or legal separation. This is not the day you and your spouse first decide to get a divorce. In fact, the correct period to mail a notice is often many months before you file for a divorce, so timing is everything.
A plan administrator, when notified of the divorce or legal separation, has 14 days to send you the paperwork elect COBRA. They can do so in person or by first-class mail.
The beneficiary spouse, after receiving a COBRA Election Notice which describes their rights to continue coverage, must have at least 60 days from the later of the qualifying event, date coverage was lost or the date of the COBRA notice to elect extended coverage.
Dental Insurance and Obamacare
Dental care and insurance has been impacted by new Health Care Reform Act. The Affordable Care Act mandates that pediatric dental care will have to be included in all basic health insurance plans slated to be sold on the insurance exchanges starting in 2014. Dental plans may be offered within a standard health care package or may be offered as separate plans – as long as dental care for children is included somewhere.
Dental Insurance and COBRA alternatives
If you are healthy, consider getting your own Private Medical Insurance. It would be near impossible for an ex-spouse to cancel you from your own health insurance (assuming they even knew the company) without serious fraud. Also consider getting into your health insurance plan at work. Written by Craig J. Casey
Craig Casey is an Writer, Coach, Blogger, Husband, and Former Health Insurance Agent helping people on the web since 1999 with their health insurance problems.
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