ITHACA, N.Y.—Cornell University says it will extend health care coverage on Sept. 1 to all adult children up to age 26 of employees enrolled in its self-funded health care plan, four months before the new health care reform law requires it do so.

The venerable Ivy League university says employees can add their children with no change in the premium they pay for dependent children.

“We think this is the right thing to do,” said Paul Bursic, Cornell's director of benefit services in Ithaca, N.Y.

Previously, Cornell, which has about 6,500 employees in its self-funded plan, stopped coverage of employees' children at age 19, or 25 for full-time college students.

Under the health care reform law, the extension is required on the first day of the plan year that begins after Sept. 23. For employers like Cornell with calendar-year plans, the requirement must be met by Jan. 1, 2011.

The vast majority of employers are waiting until Jan. 1 to amend their health care plans to meet the new young adult child coverage requirement, according to several surveys. Previously, though, United Technologies Corp. in Hartford, Conn., announced it will comply with the new coverage mandate on July 1, six months before it would have been required to do so.