Contact

Reaching the right administrative resource for COBRA continuation coverage questions requires understanding how this office is structured, what response timelines are realistic, and which federal agencies retain jurisdiction over disputes or enforcement matters. This page outlines how to direct inquiries to this office and identifies the regulatory bodies — including the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) — that handle formal compliance, penalty, and rights-based matters under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (29 U.S.C. §§ 1161–1168).

Response expectations

Inquiries submitted to this office are reviewed and categorized before routing. Standard informational questions — covering topics such as election periods, qualifying events, premium calculations, and notification timelines — are addressed within 3 to 5 business days. Questions that involve active plan disputes, employer noncompliance allegations, or requests tied to a specific group health plan require additional research time and may take up to 10 business days before a substantive response is issued.

This office does not have adjudicative authority. Formal enforcement of COBRA rights falls under two primary federal bodies:

1. The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), a division of the DOL, handles civil enforcement and beneficiary complaints. Contact EBSA directly at dol.gov/agencies/ebsa or by calling 1-866-444-3272.
2. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which administers excise tax penalties for noncompliance under IRC § 4980B, handles employer tax-related COBRA violations. IRS guidance is published at irs.gov.

For matters involving state continuation coverage (sometimes called "mini-COBRA"), the applicable state insurance commissioner's office holds jurisdiction, as these laws fall outside federal COBRA's scope. State programs are addressed in Mini-COBRA State Laws for Small Employers.

Response completeness depends on the specificity of the inquiry. Submissions that include the type of qualifying event, the group health plan type (fully insured or self-funded), and the relevant timeline receive faster and more targeted responses than general questions.

Additional contact options

Beyond direct inquiry submission, several federally maintained resources serve as authoritative first-stop references for COBRA questions:

• DOL COBRA Resource Page — dol.gov/general/topic/health-plans/cobra: Provides access to model notices, regulatory guidance, and FAQs maintained by EBSA.
• IRS COBRA Guidance — irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/q_a_cobra_2004.pdf: Addresses premium calculation rules, the 102 percent cap framework, and the excise tax structure under IRC § 4980B.
• HealthCare.gov COBRA Information — healthcare.gov/unemployed/cobra-coverage: Maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), this resource outlines interaction between COBRA and ACA Marketplace special enrollment periods.

Employers operating self-funded plans with ERISA obligations may also direct plan-level compliance questions to the DOL's Office of Regulations and Interpretations, which issues Advisory Opinions on specific factual scenarios. Requests for Advisory Opinions follow a structured process described at dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/employers-and-advisers/guidance/advisory-opinions.

How to reach this office

Inquiries to this office are accepted through the contact form available on this domain. When submitting a question, structuring the message around the following 4 elements reduces back-and-forth delay:

1. Inquiry type — Identify whether the question concerns a qualifying event, notification obligation, election period, premium payment, coverage duration, or employer compliance obligation.
2. Plan structure — Indicate whether the plan is fully insured (governed by a state-licensed insurer) or self-funded (administered under ERISA without an insurance carrier).
3. Employer size — Federal COBRA applies to group health plans maintained by employers with 20 or more employees (29 U.S.C. § 1161(b)). Employers below that threshold may fall under state continuation laws, and the applicable framework differs substantially.
4. Timeline of events — Notification deadlines and election periods under federal COBRA are measured in calendar days from specific triggering events. Providing dates — even approximate ones — allows for more precise responses.

Submissions that do not include plan type or employer size are routed to a general informational queue and receive a broader reference response rather than a scenario-specific answer.

Service area covered

This office provides informational resources on federal COBRA administration applicable across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Federal COBRA coverage requirements govern group health plans sponsored by private-sector employers with 20 or more employees, as well as plans sponsored by state and local governments under the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. § 300bb).

The scope of coverage for informational purposes includes:

• Federal COBRA — Applies to private employers with ≥20 employees and governmental employers under the Public Health Service Act parallel provisions.
• State continuation coverage ("mini-COBRA") — Approximately 40 states maintain continuation coverage laws for employers below the federal 20-employee threshold. These vary in duration (ranging from 3 to 36 months depending on the state) and qualifying event definitions. This office covers the structure of these programs at a federal comparative level; state-specific determinations require the applicable state insurance commissioner.
• Interaction with ACA and HIPAA — This office addresses the coordination between COBRA and ACA Marketplace enrollment windows, as well as HIPAA special enrollment rights triggered by loss of group coverage. See COBRA vs. ACA Marketplace Coverage and COBRA and HIPAA Interaction for detailed treatment of these intersections.

Geographic limitations apply to employer-specific compliance advice. Multistate employers subject to both federal COBRA and state continuation laws in jurisdictions such as California, New York, and Texas face layered obligations that this office addresses at the framework level. Definitive compliance determinations for specific plan configurations require plan counsel or a licensed benefits administrator.

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The law belongs to the people. Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 590 U.S. (2020)