Question for all you readers out there

From an email that was forwarded to me:

We are paying for a former employee's COBRA coverage. Normally, the carrier would bill us, and a third party associated with the carrier would bill the former employee and that third party would reimburse us.

All that is occuring in this case, but in addition, we are reimbursing the employee for the amount the third party is billing. This employee is also receiving severance checks through our payroll.

Would the COBRA reimbursements be subject to payroll taxes, workers comp, etc.? Currently, we are paying the COBRA out of A/P as a separate check from the severance payroll.

Any ideas?