If I deducted medical from an employees severance check after coverage had ended, am I liable for incurred health costs?

Ordinarily, unless the employer has adopted a written severance plan, or has consistently and uniformly maintained a practice of providing a certain amount of severance benefits to departing employees under certain pre-ordained circumstances, the employer is not required to pay severance pay to a departing employee.   The fact that your company deducted from the severance amounts, an amount equal to the insurance premiums would not result in any obligation to the employee, if the company is not contractually or otherwise obligated to pay a certain amount of severance to the employee in as set forth in the above paragraph. (Decency might dictate that the employee be made whole for the deductions, however; I leave that to your judgment.) You do not mention the nimber of employees the company employs, or what state you are in so that we can determine whether federal or state COBRA laws might apply. If they do apply and the employer has not made sure that the employee recieved the COBRA notice, including the part that tells the employee how the employee can maintain the group coverage enjoyed during his employment by paying the emplyer's and the employees' portions of the premiums, it might well be that the employee can successfully argue that the employer has taaken upon itself the role of insurer for any medical costs that would have been covered by the group health insurance. In any event, especially where the Company explicitly informed the employee that the insurance coverage would end with his employment, its mere deduction of the amount equal to the employee's contribution for the medical coverage would not, by itself, make the employer become the insurer of the payments for the employee's medical expenses.  I hope this is helpful to you. Michael A. Caldwell 404-979-3154