What you pay for, is it what you get?
September 30, 2010 7:08 PM   Subscribe

Employer health insurance conundrum. They finally changed my health insurance this week, the insurance, but not the withdrawal from my check. Is there a time limit on this?

I recently transferred positions at my job which involved moving my employment across state lines (USA). This took place in June. The next enrollment for health insurance was August 1st and I had to change insurance because the job moved to another state. I still live in Illinois if this matters.

I filled out the paperwork for the health insurance change 8/4 and was told my new health insurance would be effective 9/1. At all times I have been paying for insurance through my employer.

When I changed my insurance I moved from a HMO to a PPO and I dropped my husband since he just got a job. Well, even though I changed insurance 9/1, I didn't receive a new card until this week. The new card still has my old address on it. I'm also getting the same amount of money withdrawn from my account. So every paycheck 8/15, 9/1, and 9/30 I've had ~$100 deducted for my husbands health insurance even though he should have been dropped sometime between 8/15 and 9/1.

Is there a time limit for when my job must file changes? Should I ask for some of this money back? I feel like I'm paying for the incompetence of the HR department, and yes, I've emailed them every paycheck trying to find out when this will all be taken care of and each email says, "next check."
posted by anonymous to Law & Government (5 answers total)
 
I don't know about timing on their end, but you need to get something other than e-mails going, STAT. The worst thing you could have happen would be to go in to some appointment and have them suddenly tell you that something doesn't add up. (Which happened to me.)

Call them. Call their higher-ups. Call your senator. E-mail Consumerist. Get this taken care of right away. You do NOT want this hanging over your head.
posted by Madamina at 7:17 PM on September 30, 2010


2 things.

1) check with the insurance company and see if the spouse is still active. if he is, it is likely not taken care of at all in the HR department.

2) tell your HR that you need to have your paycheck corrected. It is possible that the change got lost during the transfer from one state to another.

I would NOT recommend that you just "Call their higher-ups. Call your senator. E-mail Consumerist." That has the possibility of backfiring on you. Follow the escalation process in your HR, speak with your direct boss, etc. You don't want to damage a relationship with someone that could be involved in promotions based on an honest mistake.

As for how long they have to get it taken care of, I am not sure about that, but I know that it is possible for an employer to send a retro-active termination to the insurance for quite some time after the fact. As long as the change form was filed with the employer within 30 days of the qualifying event, the employer is required to process it. BTW- your move and your spouse becoming eligible for new insurance are 2 different events.
posted by slavlin at 8:22 PM on September 30, 2010


I used to work closely with HR and payroll departments and this kind of thing comes up every once in a while. It can take a while to get sorted because unfortunately the wheels of corporate health insurance grind very, very slowly (it's even slower around open enrollment, which you just had in August)

I'd try to look at this as an annoying situation and not a worrisome one. HR knows your paycheck is screwed up and is probably getting the same "next check" non-information from your payroll processor, but this will be fixed eventually. When you correspond with HR you should have them confirm when your husband's insurance terminated (probably on 8/31) and acknowledge the amount you have subsequently overpaid (probably $200). It shouldn't take more than a month to fix, but I know people who had payroll/insurance stuff that took three months to resolve. Your senator and Consumerist aren't able to accelerate this process, so you may just have to grin and bear it for a while.

As far as your insurance goes, since you have the new card you should be covered under the new policy, but it never hurts to have HR's number on your phone in case there's ever a problem.
posted by stefanie at 8:46 PM on September 30, 2010


Agreeing with stefanie. This isn't a rip-off, scam or anything more than benefits, payroll and the insurance company tripping over each other's timing and sys/admin. Do document everything, and do continue to phone up HR -- every couple of days if you have to. Also, does your company have a employee assistance program of health advocacy? Those folks are terrific, you just lay it all out for them and they take it on.
posted by thinkpiece at 4:46 AM on October 1, 2010


Call HR and make sure they're aware that the insurer has the wrong address and that they (your employer) continue to know that they've been making the wrong payroll deduction. If the card you got from the insurer is for the PPO, it is very likely that everything has been processed correctly and the wheels are moving slowly.
posted by MarkAnd at 7:39 AM on October 1, 2010


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