COBRA Administration Workflow

This template covers the core administrative steps around COBRA notice handling: general rights notice delivery, election notice dispatch after a qualifying event, and tracking the 60-day election period. It is designed to help HR or benefits teams keep timing, ownership, and follow-up in one place. It does not replace legal review of your plan documents or carrier-specific procedures.

Use it when you need repeatable handling of COBRA events across terminations, reductions in hours, and other qualifying events. A manual checklist is easy to miss when cases stack up or when multiple people touch the same event. This playbook is better when you want a consistent execution plan with clear steps, deadlines, and handoffs.

It is typically run by HR operations, benefits administration, or a third-party COBRA administrator. The important part is that the owner can confirm qualifying-event details, send notices on time, and track responses through the election window. If legal or payroll needs to review certain cases, they can be added as approval or notification steps.

It runs each time a qualifying event is reported and can also be used for periodic follow-up on open election windows. Many teams pair it with a weekly review of pending cases so no notice or deadline slips. If your organization has frequent terminations or status changes, the workflow should be used continuously rather than as a one-time process.

The biggest pitfalls are missing the notice deadline, failing to document the qualifying event date, and losing track of the 60-day election period. Another common issue is sending a notice before the event details are confirmed, which can create rework. This template helps by separating intake, validation, notice dispatch, and deadline tracking into distinct steps.

Yes. You can adjust the notice owner, the handoff path, the reminder cadence, and the fields captured for each event. If a carrier or third-party administrator needs specific data, map those requirements into the input schema and step parameters. You can also add internal approval or compensation steps if your process requires them.

It can be adapted to connect with HRIS, payroll, case management, or ticketing systems through trigger-action automation. Common integrations include creating a case, assigning a checklist, posting a status update, and scheduling reminders. The key is to keep the workflow tied to the source of truth for employment status and the system that owns notice delivery.

Ad hoc handling depends on memory and email threads, which makes timing and documentation harder to prove. This template gives you a repeatable playbook with trigger phrases, ordered steps, and a clear election-period track. That makes it easier to audit, delegate, and standardize across cases.