Boca Raton is home to some of South Florida's most established land surveying and civil engineering firms. Caulfield & Wheeler, Inc. has been providing professional land surveying and engineering services from Boca Raton since 1982 — contributing to developments across Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie Counties. Avirom & Associates, founded in 1981 with a team of 35 to 40 staff including six registered land surveyors, has surveyed projects as prominent as the Boca Raton Resort and Club. These are not small operations — they are exactly the type of employer that federal COBRA was designed to cover.
For surveying firms of this size and reach, COBRA compliance is an ongoing operational requirement, not a one-time exercise. Understanding the obligations, deadlines, and common pitfalls is essential to avoiding the federal penalties and litigation risk that come with noncompliance.
Boca Raton's market has characteristics that create complex COBRA administration needs. Surveying firms here handle high-value commercial transactions — ALTA/NSPS surveys for Boca Raton's luxury commercial real estate market, construction layout for mixed-use developments, and multi-county infrastructure projects. These engagements require specialized licensed staff who are brought on, phased down, and transitioned as project scope dictates.
Additionally, firms that operate across multiple counties — as many Boca Raton-based firms do — must manage a workforce spread across Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade, each with its own project pipeline and workforce needs. A single COBRA administration framework must cover all of these workers regardless of which county they're deployed to on any given project.
Federal COBRA applies to private-sector employers that sponsor a group health plan and employ 20 or more employees on a typical business day during the prior calendar year. The count includes all categories of employees on a proportional FTE basis — licensed PSMs, GPS technicians, CAD specialists, administrative staff, and any part-time workers.
For established Boca Raton firms with 35 to 40 staff members, the threshold is not a borderline question — they are clearly covered. For smaller firms in the 15 to 25 range, the FTE calculation based on actual hours worked is essential to get right. Retain the calculation documentation for at least six years.
| Qualifying Event | Covered Beneficiaries | Maximum Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Termination (except gross misconduct) | Employee, spouse, dependents | 18 months |
| Reduction in hours below plan eligibility | Employee, spouse, dependents | 18 months |
| Employee death | Spouse and dependents | 36 months |
| Divorce or legal separation | Spouse and dependents | 36 months |
| Medicare entitlement | Spouse and dependents | 36 months |
| Dependent child loses eligibility | Dependent child | 36 months |
General COBRA Notice: Delivered within 90 days of a new plan enrollee's effective coverage date. Commonly included with the Summary Plan Description.
Employer to Plan Administrator: Within 30 days of termination, hours reduction, death, or Medicare entitlement qualifying event.
Employee/Beneficiary to Plan Administrator: Within 60 days for divorce, legal separation, or dependent status loss qualifying events.
Plan Administrator Election Notice: Must be sent within 14 days of receiving the qualifying event notification.
Beneficiary Election Window: 60 days from the later of coverage loss date or receipt of election notice.
First Premium Payment: 45 days from election, covering all months retroactively from coverage loss. Monthly payments thereafter carry a 30-day grace period.
Step 1 — Annual FTE Determination. Each January, calculate the prior year's average FTE headcount across all pay periods. Document the result and store it with your plan records.
Step 2 — Enroll New Participants with General Notice. Within 90 days of any new employee's coverage effective date, provide the general COBRA rights notice with documented delivery.
Step 3 — Qualifying Event Intake System. All project managers and HR personnel should flag employment changes immediately — not at payroll cycle close — to give you the full 30 days for plan administrator notification.
Step 4 — Plan Administrator Notification. Notify your carrier, TPA, or plan administrator within 30 days. Request confirmation that the election notice was sent within 14 days.
Step 5 — Accurate Premium Billing. Charge up to 102% of the full group premium (employer + employee + 2%). Update at every plan renewal.
Step 6 — Recordkeeping for Six Years. Retain qualifying event notices, election notices, proof of delivery, payment records, and premium calculations for six years minimum.
Florida is an at-will employment state — surveying firms can terminate for any lawful reason — but at-will status creates no exception to federal COBRA. Every non-gross-misconduct separation triggers the notice clock.
Florida's 2026 minimum wage of $13.00 per hour applies statewide. Palm Beach County and the City of Boca Raton have no local wage ordinances above the state floor. This means your entry-level field positions are subject to the $13/hr floor, which affects payroll costs and plan contribution structures for lower-wage employees.
Florida has no state mini-COBRA law. Firms below 20 employees in Boca Raton have no Florida-law obligation to offer continuation coverage, though voluntary continuation is a common retention practice in competitive professional services markets like Palm Beach County.
Failing to capture remote-site qualifying events. When a field crew member working a Palm Beach Gardens project experiences an hours reduction that ends their coverage, the Boca Raton home office needs to know immediately — not at the end of the project. Establish clear reporting channels from field supervisors to whoever manages your group health plan.
Treating reductions in hours between projects as "pauses." If an employee's hours drop below plan eligibility between engagements — even temporarily — that is a qualifying event. The fact that you expect to bring them back to full hours on the next project does not eliminate the COBRA obligation triggered by the coverage lapse.
Inconsistent COBRA premium calculations across plan years. Firms operating for decades must update their COBRA premium schedule at every plan renewal. Using a stale premium figure — whether from last year or from a prior TPA's records — creates compliance exposure.
Not maintaining records after employee reinstatement. If a former employee whose COBRA coverage expired is later rehired and re-enrolled, their prior COBRA history is a separate record. Maintain both the COBRA records and the new enrollment records independently for the six-year retention period.
Also see: HR Compliance Guide · Gulf Coast Health Guide · Health Insurance by City · GulfCoastPlans.com