Airgas USA Hit with Class Action Over Alleged COBRA Notice Problems

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A proposed class action claims that Airgas USA, LLC failed to send former health plan participants proper notice of their right to elect to continue their insurance coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA).

Per the 21-page case, group health plan sponsors such as Airgas are obligated under COBRA to notify each qualified beneficiary who would lose coverage as a result of a qualifying event, such as termination, of their right to elect continuation coverage.

The lawsuit alleges that the purported COBRA notice sent to plan participants and beneficiaries by Airgas was missing critical information and thus was not written “in a manner calculated to be understood by the average plan participant,” as required by law. The case alleges Airgas presumably sent a deficient COBRA notice in order to “push[] terminated employees away from electing COBRA.”

“Rather than including all information required by law in a single notice, written in a manner calculated to be understood by the average plan participant, Defendant’s COBRA notification process instead offers only part of the legally required information in haphazard and piece-meal fashion,” the complaint contends.

As a way to facilitate COBRA compliance, the U.S. Department of Labor has issued a model notice that contains all of the legally required information that must be shared with participants and beneficiaries, the lawsuit states. According to the case, Airgas “partially adhered” to the model DOL notice and instead sent only some of the required information across multiple documents.

The lawsuit claims that the mailings sent by Airgas contained “bits and pieces of information on COBRA” and left out certain mandatory details, including:

• The address to which payments should be sent;
• An explanation of how to actually enroll in COBRA;
• A physical election form; and
• All “required explanatory information.”

Per the case, Airgas’s COBRA notice left the plaintiff, an ex-employee who was terminated in February 2021, “confused” about the election process, which resulted in the man’s inability to make an informed decision regarding whether to enroll in COBRA.

“In fact, Plaintiff did not understand the notice and, further, Plaintiff was unable to elect COBRA because of the confusing and incomplete Airgas COBRA notice,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit claims the plaintiff suffered harm, including lost health insurance, out-of-pocket medical expenses and stress and anxiety due to the loss of his health insurance.

The case looks to cover all participants and beneficiaries in the Airgas health plan who were sent a COBRA notice by the defendant in the form sent to the plaintiff during the applicable statute of limitations period as a result of a qualifying event (as determined by Airgas’s records) and did not elect continuation coverage.

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