Organizations may receive a premium grace period

BCBSND has implemented a grace period for premium payments under the following circumstances.

• If your business has fully insured coverage and fewer than 50 employees, you’ll have 62 days to make your premium payment as opposed to the normal 31-day requirement.
• If you can pay your premium, we urge you to do so to avoid a double payment next month.
• If your business has 50 or more employees, and you need to delay a payment, please confer with your BCBSND representative.

IMPORTANT: The grace period is not premium relief. Premiums will still be owed, but members and groups will have a longer time period to pay them. 

Employee eligibility requirements have been eased.

As businesses around the country are forced to reduce hours or lay off employees, BCBSND is also allowing greater flexibility in eligibility requirements:

• As long as premiums are paid, BCBSND will work with employers to keep employees on their health plan, even when their hours fall below current eligibility guidelines.
• BCBSND will also soon accept credit card payments from small group employers to aide in their ability to make premium payments.
• BCBSND will allow employers to remove or reduce current probationary periods for new employees, thereby allowing new employees access to their health plan sooner. 

Laid off employees may qualify for tax credits.

If you find yourself making the hard decision to lay off employees to survive the pandemic, laid off employees may qualify for premium relief through the federal government’s Advanced Premium Tax Credit (APTC) program. COVID-19-related layoffs are considered a qualifying event. Learn more