wait for COBRA letter is finally over

Last week, I called to cancel Shawn's COBRA policy from my former employer, so that he could go on the new COBRA policy starting on March 1.  But it turns out I couldn't cancel -- it was his policy so he needed to call.  The person I talked to said Shawn would need to call and enter his social security number, not mine, in the menu of prompts you hear when you call.  So I called him and told him what to do.  Ten minutes later he called back and said that after going through all the phone menus to get to a person, they said they would need MY social security number as well, which of course he didn't have... so he had to call me, get the number, and call them back, going through the phone menus all over again. (These are nothing compared to Comcast, which I've blogged about before. Still, before reaching a person you have to enter 5 or 6 different pieces of information and get transferred at least once.)   So armed with my social security number, he dialed, entered all the information, and successfully cancelled his policy before having to pay for another month. 

Step two is to sign up for the new COBRA, which we can't do until I receive the letter from HR.  But they can't send out the letter saying he is eligible until the day he is no longer covered - which was March 1, this past Monday. I figured it would take a few days to reach me so I was expecting to get the letter Wednesday or Thursday.  Each day, as soon as the mail came, I eagerly searched for the letter.  Nothing on Wednesday.  Slight apprehension now but I figured surely it would be there on Thursday.  But no, Thursday mail arrives and still no letter.  Now I start to worry so I called HR.  A very nice woman who has been helping me assured me that the letter "should have been sent on Monday" and that she would double check.  She later contacted me and verified it was sent.    

Finally, today's mail arrives and there is the COBRA packet.  I filled it out and sent a scanned copy back to HR within an hour of receiving it. And I am about to head to the post office to send the paper copy along with the first check. I hope it gets processed in time for his next doctor appointments the week after next, as well as in time for him to refill this month's prescriptions.