Many companies do not intend to comply early with a provision in the new health care reform law that will require group health care plans to extend coverage to employees’ young adult children up to age 26, according to a survey released Tuesday, June 8.

Among the 501 large employers responding to a Hewitt Associates Inc. survey, 77 percent said they will wait until the effective date before offering the coverage. Ten percent of respondents said they will extend coverage early to all eligible adult children, 9 percent said they will continue coverage for graduating students already covered in their plans, and 4 percent were undecided.

The law requires the extension to be made on the first day of the plan year starting after September 23, 2010. For calendar-year plans, which are the most common, the effective date of the provision would be January 1.

Source: Jerry Geisel, Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management.