{"id":289,"date":"2023-08-07T15:53:14","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T15:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/?p=289"},"modified":"2023-08-07T15:54:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T15:54:34","slug":"what-is-cobra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/","title":{"rendered":"What is COBRA?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/PBS-blog-picture-6-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"COBRA\" class=\"wp-image-290\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/PBS-blog-picture-6-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/PBS-blog-picture-6-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/PBS-blog-picture-6-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/PBS-blog-picture-6-250x250.jpg 250w, https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/PBS-blog-picture-6.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>COBRA is short for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.<br><br>It\u2019s a federal law that allows certain employees and covered dependents to elect to continue their same group health coverage, at their own cost, when it would otherwise be discontinued because of a qualifying event.<br><br>These&nbsp;<strong><em>qualifying events<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;include termination or reduction in hours, death of a covered employee, divorce or legal separation, Medicare entitlement, and loss of dependent status. Generally, COBRA can be used for up to 18 months, and in some circumstances, up to 36 months.<br><br>COBRA applies to most group health plans that are sponsored by employers with 20 or more employees on more than 50% of their typical business days in the previous calendar year. COBRA doesn\u2019t apply to plans sponsored by the federal government, churches, or church-related organizations.\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This Q&amp;A does not constitute legal advice and does not address state or local law.<\/em> Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/general\/topic\/health-plans\/cobra\">U.S. Department of labor<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"h-do-you-have-any-more-questions-about-cobra-pbs-can-help-you-contact-us-here\">Do you have any more questions about COBRA? PBS can help you! Contact us <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbspay.com\/contact-us\"><code><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-light-green-cyan-color\">here<\/mark><\/code><\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COBRA is short for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. It\u2019s a federal law that allows certain employees and covered dependents to elect to continue their same group health coverage, at their own cost, when it would otherwise be discontinued because of a qualifying event. These&nbsp;qualifying events&nbsp;include termination or reduction in hours, death [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-resources","tag-cobra"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is COBRA? - Payroll &amp; Benefits Solutions Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"COBRA is short for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. It\u2019s a federal law that allows certain employees and covered...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is COBRA?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"COBRA is short for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. It\u2019s a federal law that allows certain employees and covered...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Payroll &amp; Benefits Solutions Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-07T15:53:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-07T15:54:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/PBS-blog-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Julia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Julia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Julia\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8867343d6866fad4f906d5afe18b9bd1\"},\"headline\":\"What is COBRA?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-07T15:53:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-07T15:54:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/\"},\"wordCount\":177,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/PBS-blog-header.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COBRA\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Human Resources\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/\",\"name\":\"What is COBRA? - Payroll &amp; Benefits Solutions Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/08\/07\/what-is-cobra\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/PBS-blog-header.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-07T15:53:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-07T15:54:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8867343d6866fad4f906d5afe18b9bd1\"},\"description\":\"COBRA is short for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. 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