Travis Software Announces Today How to Administer COBRA Modified for Hurricane Victims within TravisCobra

Houston, TX - September 28, 2005 -- Travis Software Corp., a market leader providing Advanced Employee Benefits Software, announces today how to Administer COBRA Modified for Hurricane Victims within TravisCobra.

The Department of Labor and the IRS have extended the time frames for complying with HIPAA, COBRA, claim regulations, and 5500 Form filings to participants, beneficiaries and plan sponsors in the disaster areas (the counties and parishes in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama that have been or are later designated as disaster areas eligible for Individual Assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina). The time frames for numerous employee benefit rules are "tolled" for the period between August 29, 2005 and January 3, 2006. The purpose of this agency action is to minimize the possibility of individuals losing benefits because of a failure to comply with certain pre-established time frames, as well as to provide relief to employers who may be unable to meet timely notice deadlines.

At this time, there has been no similar extension for victims of Hurricane Rita. This DOL and IRS notice applies specifically to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

To view the full text of the DOL/IRS notice including some excellent examples, go to: www.dol.gov/ebsa. See the top of the web page under New and Noteworthy.

What will Travis do to TravisCobra to help you meet these COBRA provisions of the DOL/IRS announcement? Thankfully, Release 7.3 of the system (the version first released June 30, 2005) already supports features which can help you meet these requirements, and together with some letter modifications for those companies/organizations with affected employees and PQBs, we believe you are in position to meet the new requirements now without modification to the system.

As a suggestion, if you learn that a PQB is a Katrina victim, you might use the Custom Letter Writer built into TravisCobra to add wording to the Cobra Election Notice, HIPAA Cert, Non-Commencement Notice and Termination Notices for that employer to indicate:

"if you resided, lived or worked in one of the disaster areas (the counties and parishes in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama that have been or are later designated as disaster areas eligible for Individual Assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency) because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, you may be eligible for an extension of the due dates for enrollment and payment shown on this notice until January 3, 2006. Please call the undersigned to discuss the particulars of the extension and how it applies to you."

Additionally, by indicating to TravisCobra that the PQB is "On Hold", the system will then suspend termination for those PQBs for non-payment or non-enrollment if their payments didn't arrive by January 3, 2006, enrollment forms that didn't arrive by March 4, 2006 or the particular due date involved for a specific PQB.

Further information about utilizing the "On Hold" feature of the system, or using the Custom Letter Writer to modify letters, may be obtained by calling TravisSupport.

For more information about the COBRA Modifications for Hurricane Victims in TravisCobra , or any other products that Travis Software provides, please contact Travis Marketing at (866) 802-2312, email Travis Software at inf@travisoft.com or visit Travis Software at www.travisoft.com.