My Employer Cancelled My COBRA Because I Was Late With My Payment. How Can I Get Them To Reinstate It?
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Insurance & Finance Writer
Merriya Valleri is a skilled insurance writer with over a decade of professional writing experience. Merriya has a strong desire to make understanding insurance an easy task while providing readers with accurate and up-to-date information. Merriya has written articles focusing on health, life, and auto insurance. She enjoys working in the insurance field, and is constantly learning in order to ...
Merriya Valleri
Licensed Insurance Agent
Daniel Walker graduated with a BS in Administrative Management in 2005 and has run his family’s insurance agency, FCI Agency, for over 15 years (BBB A+). He is licensed as an insurance agent to write property and casualty insurance, including home, life, auto, umbrella, and dwelling fire insurance. He’s also been featured on sites like Reviews.com and Safeco. To ensure our content is accura...
Daniel Walker
Updated January 2025
Honestly, you may not be able to. It depends on whether this was your first payment or a subsequent payment, how late you were with it and whether your payment was complete. Let’s look at a few different scenarios. In all cases, the date that your payment is postmarked is the date that the law considers you to have paid.
First premium payment: If this is your first payment, you have 45 days from the day you elected COBRA to make payment. As long as payment is made within this 45-day period, your COBRA will continue in force. If you pay outside this 45-day period, you are considered to have forfeited your COBRA (i.e., lose your continuation rights). Your ex-employer may, if they so choose, accept your late check and implement COBRA anyway, but if the payment is postmarked more than 45 days after the election of COBRA, it’s up to your former employer whether to accept it or not.
Later payments: If this is a subsequent payment, the grace period mandated by law is 30 days. If, as an example, the COBRA premium is due on April 1, under the law your ex-employer must give you a 30-day grace period. So to all practical purposes you’re all right as long as your payment is postmarked sometime during the month of April.
If the payment is postmarked May 1 or later, however, then once again it is up to your former boss whether or not to accept it. He or she may legally, in that instance, return your payment to you and cancel your coverage retroactive to April 1. He may offer a grace period of more than 30 days, but the law will not compel him to do so.
Incorrect premium payment: There is one other possibility to keep in mind, and that is the possibility of a short payment. A payment made for less than 100% can legally be considered not to have been made, unless the difference is “insignificant”– $50 or 10%– whichever is less. In that case, you must be notified of the shortfall by your ex-employer and given a reasonable amount of time to pony up the difference. The IRS has determined that 30 days is reasonable. Once again, if your payment is postmarked more than 30 days after the notice that your payment was short, your former boss is not obligated to accept it.
The law does not require your employer to provide monthly billing statements with the exception noted above. It is your responsibility to know the payment due date and make the premium payments in full, on time.
Case Studies: COBRA Payment Issues
Case Study 1: John’s Delayed Initial Payment
John’s first payment for COBRA was made after the designated deadline. As per the legal requirement, he has 45 days from the time he elected COBRA to submit the payment. If the payment is made within this timeframe, his COBRA coverage will continue. However, if the payment is postmarked more than 45 days after his election.
Case Study 2: Sarah’s Delayed Subsequent Payment
Sarah is facing a delay in making her subsequent COBRA payment. The law provides a grace period of 30 days, during which she can still submit the payment. If the payment is postmarked within this grace period, her coverage will remain intact. Employer may choose to accept.
Case Study 3: Mark’s Incomplete Premium Payment
Mark has encountered an issue with his premium payment, as it was not paid in full. Payments that are less than 100% of the required amount may be considered unpaid, unless the shortfall is deemed “insignificant” (either $50 or 10% of the total). In the event that the shortfall is brought to Mark’s attention, he will have a period of 30 days to make the payment for the remaining balance.
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