WageWorks COBRA Bulletin #5
WageWorks® COBRA Bulletin
WageWorks recently announced a number of significant process enhancements and system upgrades designed to fundamentally improve the account management and participant experience on our COBRA platform. This edition of WageWorks’ COBRA Bulletin provides an overview of some of these changes.
COBRA Process and System Enhancements
- New Software Upgrades – This implementation greatly improves the way we document, analyze and manage our COBRA services. This enhanced technology essentially enables us to simplify and automate our COBRA operations by cataloging process flows, assigning business owners, establishing review cycles and creating organized change control processes.
- We’ve Hired More Staff –Additional COBRA professionals and benefits administration experts have recently been hired to fully support the increased process volumes that resulted from the ARRA.
- New Project Initiation Request Process and Review Board – A project initiation request process has been instituted to more effectively prioritize new COBRA initiatives. This will further ensure a timely response to changes and updates in COBRA regulations, while establishing a unified method of review and departmental coordination.
- Updated Qualified Beneficiary File Specifications – The recent enhancements to our file specifications enable us to fully support ARRA requirements in a concise and effective manner. Our main priority as we continue to stay on top of regulatory changes is to make the process as easy as possible for our clients.
- Improved Qualifying Event Form – This updated form allows us to streamline the most basic element of COBRA notifications.
- Streamlined End-to-End Open Enrollment Process – These system enhancements to our enrollment process allows us to better inform and guide your COBRA participants through their various health plan optionsand to ensure accuracy and consistency in all communications. These changes also provide improved tracking mechanisms for our clients.
- New Qualifying Event Lifecycle Overview – In an effort to improve the visibility into our COBRA processes and services, WageWorks recently released a Qualifying Event Lifecycle Overview. This document illustrates the timelines and activities associated with qualifying events, from the initial qualifying event to the qualified beneficiary receiving coverage.
- New Secure Email – We take our role as data stewards very seriously and as such, we have deployed new measures to further secure the privacy and confidentiality of all participant data communicated via email. Our new email protocol requires all recipients to enter a secure user name and password in order to access the message’s contents or attachments. This enables us to offer a program in full compliance with all applicable HIPAA regulations.
Our COBRA team is working hard to simplify our processes and improve upon the quality of our services, while also maintaining strict compliance with evolving COBRA regulations.
If you have any questions regarding your COBRA Administration, please address those to your Account Service Manager.
2273