COBRA in Florida: What Continuation Coverage You Get, and What a Small Employer Has to Do

In short (as of September 13, 2026): If the company you left had 20 or more employees, federal COBRA applies — 18 months of the same coverage after a job loss or cut hours, up to 102% of the applicable premium, at least 60 days to elect (29 U.S.C. §§ 1161–1165). If it had fewer than 20, federal COBRA does not apply, and an insured Florida group plan owes you continuation under Fla. Stat. § 627.6692 — also 18 months, up to 115%, but you must notify the carrier in writing within 63 days.

Most people reading this just lost coverage, or are about to. So the first half of this page is written to you. The second half is written to the owner or HR manager on the other side of that conversation, because in Florida the two halves rarely match: the law protecting a 12-person company’s ex-employee runs through the carrier, not the employer.

If You Just Lost Coverage, Start With the Size of the Company You Left

One question decides everything that follows: did your employer normally employ 20 or more people?

Federal COBRA does not apply to a group health plan for any calendar year if all employers maintaining it normally employed fewer than 20 employees on a typical business day during the preceding calendar year (29 U.S.C. § 1161(b)). The Department of Labor counts full- and part-time employees for that test, each part-timer as a fraction of a full-time employee.

Above that line, you have federal COBRA rights: coverage identical to what similarly situated plan members who haven’t had a qualifying event have (29 U.S.C. § 1162(1)), which generally means what you had the day before the qualifying event. You and each covered family member are each a qualified beneficiary who can make a separate election (29 U.S.C. § 1165(a)(2); 26 CFR 54.4980B-6).

Below it, you are not unprotected. Florida’s own statute requires a group health plan issued to a small employer to let each qualified beneficiary who would lose coverage elect continuation, without evidence of insurability (Fla. Stat. § 627.6692(5)(a)). “Small employer” there means fewer than 20 employees (§ 627.6692(4)(h)), and the statute steps aside where federal COBRA applies (§ 627.6692(3)). The two never overlap.

Both laws treat the same events as qualifying: termination for anything other than gross misconduct, a reduction in hours, death of the covered employee, divorce or legal separation, Medicare entitlement, and a child aging out of dependent status.

How Long the Coverage Runs, and What It Is Allowed to Cost

Under federal COBRA, a job loss or cut in hours buys 18 months from the qualifying event. A Social Security disability determination covering any time in the first 60 days of continuation extends that to 29 months for the whole family. Divorce, death, Medicare entitlement, and loss of dependent status run 36 months (29 U.S.C. § 1162(2)(A)).

The ceiling on price is 102% of the applicable premium — the full cost of the coverage, including the share your employer used to pay, plus two points for administration (29 U.S.C. § 1162(3)(A)). During an 11-month disability extension it rises to 150%.

Florida mini-COBRA runs until 18 months after the date coverage would otherwise have ended because of the qualifying event (§ 627.6692(5)(b)1.), with an extension to 29 months for a beneficiary Social Security found disabled at the time of the qualifying event, if the carrier receives the written determination within 60 days of it and before the 18 months end (§ 627.6692(5)(c)). The premium may not exceed 115% of the applicable premium (§ 627.6692(5)(f)), or 150% during the extension. That 13-point gap is the practical cost of having worked at a smaller company.

Either way, coverage ends early if you stop paying, take other group coverage, become entitled to Medicare, or the employer drops the plan for everyone. Florida adds one wrinkle: if the employer replaces that plan with similar coverage, you move onto the new plan for the balance of your period (§ 627.6692(5)(b)5.).

The Deadlines That Decide Whether You Keep It

Under federal COBRA, the plan comes to you. Your employer notifies the plan administrator within 30 days of the termination, the administrator sends an election notice within 14 days, and your election period runs at least 60 days from the later of the date coverage ends or the date that notice is provided (29 U.S.C. §§ 1166(a)(2), 1166(c), 1165(a)(1)). You cannot be charged at election: the plan must allow at least 45 days after you elect for the first payment, then a 30-day grace period on each payment after.

Under Florida mini-COBRA, the first move is yours. You must give written notice to the carrier within 63 days after the qualifying event, identifying the employer, the plan number, and every qualified beneficiary (§ 627.6692(5)(d)1.). The carrier then has 14 days to mail an election and premium form by certified mail (§ 627.6692(5)(d)2.), and you have 30 days after receiving it to elect in writing and pay the initial premium (§ 627.6692(5)(e)1.). Coverage is retroactive to the date it would otherwise have ended.

If the carrier misses its notice and you lose coverage as a result, the statute deems you to have elected on time, at the carrier’s expense (§ 627.6692(5)(g)). The statute gives no general relief to a beneficiary who simply missed the 63 days.

Before electing either one, compare. Losing job-based coverage opens a special enrollment window in the Health Insurance Marketplace that runs from 60 days before to 60 days after that coverage ends and, if you are eligible for a spouse’s plan, a 30-day special enrollment there, and being offered continuation does not disqualify you from a Marketplace premium tax credit.

Now the Employer’s Side: Which Law Your Company Is Under

If you run a small Florida company, you are probably not subject to federal COBRA, probably subject to § 627.6692, and that statute deliberately puts your carrier — not you — at the center.

The carrier mails the initial notice of continuation rights to every covered employee, spouse, and dependent (§ 627.6692(8)). The carrier’s policy, certificate, and plan booklet must describe the right, the procedure, and carry the notice form a beneficiary uses (§ 627.6692(7)). The carrier sends the election and premium notice, bills monthly, and allows the grace period (§ 627.6692(5)(d)2., (5)(e)1.).

A carrier may contract that work out — to an administrator holding a certificate of authority under part VII of chapter 626, or to the employer itself by separate addendum to the policy, for consideration (§ 627.6692(6)(a), (6)(b)). What it may not do is make you take the work as the price of coverage: a carrier may not, as a condition of providing coverage to a small employer, require the employer to perform duties related to this section (§ 627.6692(6)(b)). Florida Blue’s guide for group administrators, for one, keeps the job: it says that for a group of “19 or fewer eligible employees (for 50% or more of the previous calendar year)” state continuation “will be administered by us as well and cannot be waived,” that it bills the continuant directly rather than through the group, and that self-administration exists only for federal COBRA and “is limited to group size over 100 employees” (Florida Blue, Guide for Group Administration, pp. 27–28). Your part, under that guide, is the annual compliance questionnaire. Other carriers publish their own terms; ask for them.

The Run-Book: What Has to Happen, and by When

Subject to federal COBRA, 20 or more employees:

• Within 90 days of a new hire’s coverage start, the plan gives the employee and spouse the general notice of COBRA rights. DOL’s model general notice, properly completed, is good-faith compliance.
• Within 30 days of the qualifying event — termination, cut hours, death, Medicare entitlement, bankruptcy — you notify the plan administrator (29 U.S.C. § 1166(a)(2)). That deadline is yours, and it is the one small HR teams miss.
• Within 14 days of that notice, the administrator sends the election notice (29 U.S.C. § 1166(c)).
• Divorce, legal separation, and a child aging off are the beneficiary’s to report within 60 days (29 U.S.C. § 1166(a)(3)); your plan documents must say how.
• Document the termination reason. Gross misconduct is the only termination that is not a qualifying event, and it is a conclusion to reach with counsel.

Under 20 employees, insured in Florida:

• Get the booklet into employees’ hands. The carrier owes the initial notice and the booklet language; you distribute enrollment materials.
• Say it out loud at termination. Your ex-employee has 63 days to notify the carrier, and nothing requires you to remind them. Handing over the carrier’s name, the group number, and that deadline in writing costs nothing.
• Do not collect premiums without the § 627.6692(6)(b) addendum in place. Accepting a check outside that arrangement takes on a duty you were never given.
• Terminate coverage in the carrier’s system promptly, with a defensible effective date. Continuation is measured from the date coverage would have ended because of the qualifying event, not from your paperwork.
• Carry it through a carrier change. People already on continuation move with the replacement plan (§ 627.6692(5)(b)5.) — worth raising during your renewal review.

What a Level-Funded or Self-Funded Plan Changes

This is the gap that catches small employers who moved off a fully insured contract.

Section 627.6692 applies to a “group health plan,” defined as a health benefit plan as defined in and subject to s. 627.6699 (§ 627.6692(4)(e)) — an insured small-employer product issued by a carrier. A self-funded plan is not an insurance contract, and ERISA’s deemer clause provides that an employee benefit plan may not be deemed an insurance company or insurer for purposes of any state law purporting to regulate insurance (29 U.S.C. § 1144(b)(2)(B)).

So a 12-person company on a level-funded plan can sit below the federal threshold and outside § 627.6692 at once. Whatever continuation a departing employee gets then comes from your plan document, not from either continuation statute. Whether your stop-loss contract covers a continuant’s claims, and whether the administrator runs the continuation for you and at what price, are terms of those contracts — settle both before you sign, not after the first termination.

The Year You Cross Twenty Employees

The federal test looks backward: COBRA attaches for a calendar year based on whether the employer normally employed 20 or more on a typical business day during the preceding calendar year (29 U.S.C. § 1161(b)). Hire your twentieth employee in June and the obligation generally arrives the following January.

That lead time is enough to name a plan administrator, adopt notice procedures, and put the general notice into onboarding.

Before the Next Termination

Continuation is one of the few benefits questions where the answer differs for a Melbourne company of 12 and one of 40, and stays invisible until someone leaves. The statute you are under, the notice that goes out, the percentage your ex-employee will be quoted — all three change at the same line.

We will confirm which regime your plan sits under, what your carrier is doing about notices, and what departing employees should be comparing continuation against. Start with how small-group coverage works in Florida.

Review your continuation obligations with ThirdWave Benefits

Sources

Statutory citations are as of September 13, 2026:

• 29 U.S.C. § 1161 — the fewer-than-20-employees exception. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/1161
• 29 U.S.C. § 1162 — 18/29/36-month periods, 102% and 150% ceilings, 45-day initial payment, 30-day grace. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/1162
• 29 U.S.C. § 1165 — the 60-day election period. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/1165
• 29 U.S.C. § 1166 — employer 30 days, administrator 14 days, beneficiary 60 days. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/1166
• 29 U.S.C. § 1144(b)(2)(B) — the ERISA deemer clause. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/1144
• DOL/EBSA, “An Employer’s Guide to Group Health Continuation Coverage Under COBRA” — counting method, 90-day general notice, payment rules. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/publications/an-employers-guide-to-group-health-continuation-coverage-under-cobra.pdf
• Fla. Stat. § 627.6692, Florida Health Insurance Coverage Continuation Act — 18 months, the 63-day and 14-day notices, the 30-day election, 115% and 150% ceilings. https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0600-0699/0627/Sections/0627.6692.html
• Florida Blue, Guide for Group Administration, pp. 27–28 — FHICCA administered by the carrier and not waivable at 19 or fewer; continuant billed directly; self-administration limited to federal COBRA over 100 employees. https://files.guidewell.com/m/77d7720af1256c10/original/guide-for-group-administration.pdf