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Q: My wife who was our primary health insurance provider was dismissed from her job in August 2005.  She and I were both on her health plan prior to her dismissal.  My wife’s employer continued paying for our health insurance until January 2006 when we were placed on COBRA due to her illness. It took until June 2007 for Social Security to deem her disabled. And it was retro-actively to February 2006.   Therefore she seems to have met the requirement of being legally disabled during the first sixty days of COBRA coverage. Today I received a letter dated 07/05/07 and a refund check (which was our July payment) stating that the COBRA plan was terminated as of June 30th 2007 as she had reached the end of MAX COBRA PD. We want to continue the insurance for the extended 11 months that we feel she qualifies under her life change to disability. We did not receive advance notification from the employer or insurance company  for COBRA members that our 18 month period of health insurance coverage was ending . According to what I have read in your Q&A's regarding this situation we were supposed to notify the provider of the COBRA plan that we were requesting an 11 month extension prior to the 18month period ending. My question is don't we have 30 days to reinstate our insurance or are we just out of luck, or was the company required by the Department of Labor rules to notify her of the 18 month period of coverage ending soon. We received no advance notification. Can you suggest what steps we can take to get our insurance reinstated?

A:  The employer or plan administrator must send you a Notice of Termination or Cancellation of Health Benefits letter at the completion of the 18 months of continuation coverage.  Under COBRA law the plan administrator can send you this letter shortly before or after the termination day.   They are not required to send you monthly statements.  Once your 18 months of coverage ends there is no reinstatement.   However, you may be eligible to convert the COBRA continuation to an individual policy with the same insurance company.   You will need to contact the Members Services Department of the insurance company to find out if the offer a conversion policy.