How do I know if I’ve been paid correctly?
Great question! Cocoon estimates your benefits using our own benefit calculator. While our estimates are typically accurate, it’s always good to double check the numbers in case your leave plan has changed along the way.
From your Cocoon Dashboard, navigate to the the My tasks tab. From there, click "Verify your payments" under whichever benefit you'd like submit for verification.
You can also verify payments right from the Your payments tab: Click “How do I know if I've been paid correctly?” as shown in the screenshot below.
This will bring you to our Benefits Verification Tool.
What do I need to verify a payment?
When verifying your payments, you’ll need to gather information from the pay stub that came as an Explanation of Benefits (EOB), and enter this into Cocoon.
For some entities, like Washington state benefits that are only distributed via debit card, this might only be available through your portal. For others, like the California EDD, they might vary depending on the claim type. For example, the EDD disability payments are available in your portal, but EDD Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefits are only available on the paper EOB.
The information we need to verify state payments includes:
Gross amount
This might be different than the check amount
Payment coverage dates
These are the dates for which you're being paid and should be a date range
For private insurance payments, we need:
Gross amount
FICA deductions for Medicare and Social Security
Other deductions
"Other" deductions are usually to account for expected state benefits so this is typically a large number
Payment coverage dates
Once you have uploaded all relevant documents, our team will review them, and if your estimated benefit payouts are subject to adjustment, we will reflect this in your Cocoon dashboard.
What cannot be used to reconcile for payment verification?
Bank statements - While bank statements provide clarity on what was actually issued by the state or your private insurance carrier, these typically do not provide the information necessary to reconcile the rate of benefits paid over a coverage date range.
Out-of-network expenses / EOB's - Costs associated with medical expenses are not applicable for Cocoon's product services. Cocoon reconciles claim payments associated with claims filed for your income replacement programs.
Employer paystubs - While your employer's paystubs provide context as to what you were paid, we instead need documents associated with income received outside of your employer's payroll.
We provide your employer the calculations necessary to begin their payroll process that result in what you receive in your paycheck. In other words, your employer uses Cocoon's estimation models to then calculate what you will receive on your paycheck after taking into account other offsets (like taxes or premiums, etc).
Note: Keeping Cocoon up to date on income payments received from other sources will ensure your employer is up to date on what they will pay on their leave policy. To minimize disruption to your income and ensure you are paid the maximum amount of what is available in your company's leave policy, please submit your benefit verifications as early as possible.
How do I read the Explanation of Benefits (EOB)?
State and private insurance EOBs vary a lot from one to the next. Here are some examples on how to read a typical EOB. If you’re having trouble reading your EOB and don’t see an example here, please reach out to support@cocoon.com.
When inputting private disability benefits, if the gross and net payment are the same, then enter 0 for FICA deductions. Leaving the deductions blank may block you from submitting the details.
State Benefit Examples
California EDD
New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF)
Please note that most NY benefits are distributed via the private insurance provider through your employer; you'll want to look at the Private Benefit Examples for those. There is a NY specific Guardian example following this NYSIF.
New York (via Guardian, but may come from a different private insurance)
Rhode Island
Nuance: the exact date range is not listed. An easier way to check this benefit could be selecting one 7-day week and using the weekly rate to verify benefit payments.
Washington
You can log in to your WA State Paid Family and Medical Leave portal to see the start and end dates of your approved leave. Once the portal shows payments through the end date specified, you have been fully paid.
Massachusetts
To verify that you were fully paid by MA state, please log into your portal and verify that the last Pay Period end date goes through your leave end date per your leave plan.
Private Insurance Benefit Examples
Guardian
MetLife Portal
Note this example has no FICA deductions and you would enter 0 for them.
Principal
Prudential
Unum
Have Questions? We're here to help!
Email us at support@cocoon.com