Publicly Traded Consumer Subscription Company

Background

This client is a publicly traded consumer subscription company with approximately 500 employees and a self-funded health plan. In early 2026, the company conducted a round of involuntary terminations affecting 15% of their workforce and was looking for offboarding solutions including COBRA alternatives. 

The Challenge

The leadership team saw the problem from both sides.

On the human side, they knew exactly what the default path meant for the people they were letting go. COBRA continuation coverage is priced at the full, unsubsidized group premium — often far more expensive than an ACA marketplace plan for the same person, especially once premium tax credits are factored in. Their standard severance package would have locked departing employees into the most expensive coverage option on the table, at exactly the moment those employees lost a paycheck. For a company that cares how it treats people on the way out — and knows former employees talk, review, and sometimes come back — that wasn’t an acceptable way to say goodbye.

On the cost side, COBRA is a quiet liability for any self-funded plan. Every departing employee who elects COBRA stays on the group plan, and COBRA enrollees often cost plans two to three times as much as other enrollees — they skew older, carry more chronic conditions, and are the population most motivated to keep rich coverage. A subsidized COBRA window sharpens the effect. Members know the coverage is temporary, so they compress care into it — scheduling procedures, filling prescriptions, catching up on everything they'd deferred — because they don't know when they'll have insurance again. The employer isn't just retaining its highest-cost members; it's paying for their most concentrated months of utilization. A traditional COBRA subsidy that looks like a fixed severance line item can turn into six figures of unbudgeted claims exposure.

The company wanted to do right by its departing employees and protect its plan, without adding complexity to an already difficult offboarding.

The Solution

The company turned to When, the workforce transitions platform, to change the default with a cash-based COBRA alternative. When, a licensed insurance agency and approved Healthcare.gov partner, gave each affected employee a choice: a traditional COBRA premium subsidy, or the same dollar amount delivered as a cash-equivalent When Benefit that could be applied toward any COBRA alternative coverage option, including an ACA marketplace plan.

Critically, the company’s cost was identical either way. The When Benefit was sized to the same COBRA subsidy already budgeted — no new spend, no change to the severance package’s economics, and no plan-design changes. When ran alongside the company’s existing COBRA administration, so COBRA remained fully available to anyone who preferred it.

Employees who chose the When Benefit weren’t left to navigate the individual market alone. When’s AI-powered benefits marketplace surfaced plans that fit each person’s situation, and non-commissioned, licensed agents provided one-on-one guidance where needed — comparing options, confirming provider networks, and handling enrollment. One affected employee described the experience:

“I cannot say enough good things about Dana. She brought so much clarity and helped me sort through the confusion of this process, and gave me incredibly helpful information to make an informed decision on next steps. Not only that, but she was proactive in reaching out and made me feel like she was invested in my situation and helping me get the best plan for me.”

Affected Employee, following her enrollment through When

The Results

Of the 66 departing employees offered the When Benefit, 18 used it to enroll in coverage — the rest landed in a range of outcomes typical of any transition, from a spouse’s plan to a new employer’s coverage. For the 18 who enrolled through When, the math worked on both sides of the transition.

For the company, moving 18 people off the group plan and onto ACA coverage avoided an estimated $150,000+ in claims to the self-funded plan, using a conservative projection, at zero incremental cost versus the COBRA subsidy already budgeted.

For employees, the savings were immediate and recurring. ACA premiums ran an average of $781/month below what COBRA would have cost — a real gap that continues for as long as they stay on their plans. And because the benefit was sized against the higher COBRA estimate but spent on lower ACA premiums, the same dollars went further: the average When Benefit covered 7.1 months of ACA coverage, well beyond the 1–4 month COBRA subsidy period it was originally budgeted for.

“This is the power of the When Benefit: the employer spends exactly the dollar it already budgeted, and that dollar works harder — employees walked away with coverage that cost $781 less a month and lasted seven months instead of a few. That’s the beauty of our solution — there is no trade-off. You can do right by your people and your P&L at the same time.”

Andy Hamilton, CEO & Co-Founder, When 

Figures are drawn from an 18-member cohort of a single employer’s early-2026 layoff event.

The engagement did not end with the layoff. The company remains a When client today, using the platform as its ongoing COBRA alternative, managing COBRA exposure and protecting its employer brand through every workforce transition, not just the large-scale events.

Build your offboarding plan now – it’s not a matter of if, but when

We're in an unprecedented time. Macro events — revenue declines, cybersecurity incidents, M&A, employees aging into Medicare — dominate the news, and every one of them drives a workforce transition and a coverage dilemma for the people caught in it. Even setting those events aside, ordinary workforce churn carries a real cost of its own. Build your offboarding plan before you need it. Connect with our team to learn more about how you can do right by your employees while protecting your bottom line.