What events trigger a special enrollment opportunity?
When the employee or dependent of an employee loses other health coverage, a special enrollment opportunity in the group health plan may be triggered. To have a special enrollment opportunity in this situation, the employee or dependent must have had other health coverage when coverage under the group health plan was previously declined. If the other coverage was COBRA continuation coverage, special enrollment can be requested only after the COBRA continuation coverage is exhausted. If the other coverage was not COBRA continuation coverage, special enrollment can be requested when the individual loses eligibility for the other coverage. In addition, a special enrollment opportunity may be triggered when a person becomes a new dependent through marriage, birth, adoption or placement for adoption. For each triggering event, a special enrollee may not be treated as a late enrollee. Therefore, the maximum preexisting condition exclusion period may be applied to a special enrollee is 12 mon
