New USERRA Final Rule Clarifies Questions and Applicable Penalties

The Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS), an agency within the Department of Labor (DOL), issued more than 70 pages of final regulations in mid-December, 2005, on the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). These regulations become effective on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2006.

With regards to health plan coverage continuation; VETS stressed the need for employers to develop "reasonable procedures." Infinisource will host a webinar on Tuesday, Jan.17, 2006, from 1:30 – 2:45 PM, EDT, to provide employers and agents/brokers with information to assist with compliance with these regulations, including the "reasonable procedures" requirement. Please contact our Seminar Department at 800-300-3838 for further details or visit our website to register.

Among the areas the final regulations addressed are:

• Enforcement and penalties
• Anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation
• Reemployment eligibility
• Individuals rights and obligations, including those relating to health plans
• Revision of the standard USERRA notice
• Reemployment rights

USERRA is the law that protects the rights of persons who voluntarily or involuntarily leave employment positions to undertake military service. On Dec. 10, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004. This legislation extends the maximum period for health plan continuation coverage under USERRA from 18 months up to 24 months.

Infinisource has provided clients with additional wording for insertion in Qualifying Event Notices for federal COBRA coverage that includes information about USERRA. The information explains that if military leave is less than 31 days, the employer may only charge the same amount for the coverage as paid when an active employee. Once the leave is longer than 31 days, the employer may charge up to 102 percent of the applicable premium. Infinisource clients with this Qualifying Event can refer to the military leave event code when reporting the information from the client online home page.

Employees who enter military service can automatically receive military health benefits and enroll dependents in TRICARE coverage if serving at least 31 days. However, the law offers the opportunity for the employees to continue on the group health plan with their employer. Should the employee choose to take TRICARE and the employer's group health plan, TRICARE is secondary to the employer-provided health coverage.

All employers are required to comply with the USERRA rules regardless of size, and even if there are no known uniformed service members among their employees.

Employers required to comply with federal COBRA will need to offer COBRA and USERRA to fulfill both requirements. Prior to the new law, they both offered the same time to continue on the group health plan. The new law did not change federal COBRA time frames and therefore, COBRA will offer 18 months while USERRA provides more time for the employee with 24 months of coverage.

In addition, the law requires an employer to provide an annual notice of USERRA rights and obligations to employees. The notice must contain specific information including reemployment rights, right to be free from discrimination and retaliation, health insurance protection and USERRA enforcement and complaint assistance.

The DOL has released a notice in poster format that is available at http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/USERRA_Private.pdf , the Infinisource website. It is listed under USERRA and employers should download and place in a prominent position at the workplace. Using this poster will fulfill the requirements for employers.

The Final USERRA regulations are also available on the Infinisource website under USERRA. Employers may also obtain detailed information about USERRA by calling 1-866-4-USA-DOL or by visiting www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/.

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