Portability: keeping your health insurance when you leave

You have set up a group health insurance contract for your employees. When they leave, and under certain conditions, your former employees can continue to be covered by this contract thanks to portability. The benefits are identical to those of employees still in post: the same optical, dental and hospitalisation reimbursements, and the same death and disability benefits (incapacity, disability, death). Dependants who were covered can also benefit from it.

This right is governed by article L911-8 of the Social Security Code, arising from the employment security law of 14 June 2013.

Article L911-8 sets four cumulative conditions; if one is missing, the employee loses their right to the free continuation of benefits.

• The employee must have been affiliated to the company’s supplementary health insurance and/or death and disability cover before leaving (no waiver in progress).
• The employment contract ended for a reason other than gross misconduct (redundancy, mutually agreed termination, end of a fixed-term contract, legitimate resignation and so on).
• The termination gives rise to entitlement to unemployment insurance cover (France Travail).
• The employee provides proof of these conditions to the insurer.

Good to know: no minimum length of service is required by law.

Neither the employer nor the former employee pays any extra to activate portability. It is funded by pooling between former and current employees, at no additional cost to the employer or to the benefiting employee. The former employee and their dependants therefore keep their health insurance and death and disability cover free of charge.

The duration is limited in two ways: a maximum of 12 months from the day after the end of the employment contract, and in all cases it cannot exceed the duration of the last employment contract. As soon as your former employee starts a new job or stops being compensated by France Travail, they must inform you so that they can be removed from the contract.

Example: an employee who spent 4 years with the company will be entitled to 12 months of portability (the legal cap). An employee present for 4 months and 1 day will benefit from portability rounded up to 5 months, the duration being calculated by the month.

Important point often overlooked: the employee can waive the benefit of portability within 10 days following the end of their employment contract, in writing. This is particularly useful if they are already joining a new health insurance plan.

Your obligations are specific. You must mention the continuation of benefits in the work certificate given to the former employee, and inform the insurer of the end of the employment contract (date and reason).

Portability forms an inseparable whole applied to both the health and the death and disability contract. In practice, you give the employee the portability information letter and, where applicable, the health and death and disability portability forms (if the process does not go through the DSN). For the full framework, you can consult the dedicated page on Service-Public.fr.

This is useful information to pass on to your employees. At the end of portability, the insurer sends, within two months, a proposal to continue the benefits on an individual basis (the “Evin law” scheme). The former employee must request it within six months; this offer is paid for and covers only healthcare costs, not death and disability cover.

To record an employee’s departure and activate portability via the DSN, follow these settings:

• In the “Continuation of the employee’s affiliation to the group contract” field (S21.G00.62.016): enter “0” or leave the box empty. If you enter “1”, the employee will be considered active and the removal will not be carried out.
• The portability request is triggered automatically according to the reason for departure entered (a redundancy or an end of probationary period at the employer’s initiative immediately creates the request).

Good to know: the employee’s identification details (surname, first names, date of birth and so on) must be strictly identical to those recorded on the contract for the match to be made.

• Is portability free for the employee?
  Yes. It is funded by pooling between the employer and employees in post, at no cost to the former employee and no extra cost to the employer.

• How long does portability last?
  A maximum of 12 months, from the day after the end of the contract, without being able to exceed the duration of the last employment contract.

• Can the employer refuse portability?
  No, it is a legal obligation. The employer must mention the continuation of benefits on the work certificate and inform the insurer of the departure.

• What happens at the end of portability?
  The insurer offers individual continuation under the “Evin law” (paid for, healthcare costs only), to be requested within six months following the end of portability.

• Is an employee dismissed for gross misconduct entitled to portability?
  No. Only gross misconduct excludes the right to portability; all other grounds for termination that give entitlement to unemployment benefits provide access to it.