The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

258 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
Resource
For more information on the ADA. The Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, the federal agency that administers the ADA, has a number
of helpful resources available on its website, including a fact sheet on how
the ADA interacts with the FMLA. You can find these resources at www.
eeoc.gov. An excellent resource on reasonable accommodations is the Job
Accommodation Network (JAN), at www.jan.wvu.edu.
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)
COBRA allows employees, former employees, and their families to receive
continuing coverage under an employer’s group health plan even after
experiencing a “qualifying event”—an event that would end coverage under
ordinary circumstances, such as a layoff or reduction in hours. Employees
and their families typically have to pay for this continued coverage, but they
pay the employer-negotiated group rate, which is often less expensive than an
individual rate. This right to continued coverage lasts for 18 to 36 months,
depending on the type of qualifying event.
Often, COBRA and the FMLA don’t overlap at all. Taking FMLA leave
doesn’t count as a qualifying event under COBRA, because employers are
legally obligated to continue the employee’s group health benefits during
leave (as explained in Chapter 9). In a few situations, however, an employee
who takes FMLA leave might be entitled to COBRA protection:
• The employee can’t return to work after FMLA leave. If an employee is
unable to come back to work when FMLA leave runs out, the employee
is entitled to continued health care coverage under COBRA. The
qualifying event occurs on the last day of the employee’s FMLA leave.
Similarly, if an employee passes away while on FMLA leave, and the
employee’s family is covered by your company’s group health plan, the
employee’s death is the qualifying event that entitles his or her family
members to the protections of COBRA.