<p>An interesting article. I can hardly believe that some people out there declare neighbors’ kids, or nieces and nephews, as dependents for their health care coverage. And, according to a survey, 78% of employers WON’T be adding dependents under 26 who have been dropped from coverage before they are legally required to do so.</p>
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To the list of letters that produce a groan when they arrive in your mailbox — a jury duty summons, past-due tax bills — add this one: a “dependent audit.”</p>
<p>A what?</p>
<p>A dependent audit comes from your employer, who wants proof that the people you’re carrying on the company health plan really are your dependents. If you can’t prove they are, the company will drop them.</p>
<p>My employer conducted a dependent audit last year. For anyone with legitimate dependents, it’s a very innocuous process. I whited out all the SSN and income numbers on the front page of my tax return and faxed it back with the provided, bar coded cover sheet.</p>
<p>In a time when companies are looking to control costs, it’s a prudent thing to do. I would rather they cut costs by not covering ineligible dependents than letting employees go. </p>
<p>My employer is a MA based company so they are already covering dependents up to the age of 26.</p>
<p>I just went to a medical specialist with my son. It was the first time that not only was my son asked for his insurance card, but he was also asked for picture ID or his social security card and a copy was made. I have been asked for this type of ID in our local hospital, but never at a doctor’s office. I thought that perhaps people bring uninsured in and use an insurance card from an insured person!</p>
<p>our audit was not quite as simple. We had to provide our marriage certificate, birth certificates for all of us, and tax returns. For the college kid, we had to provide proof of current enrollment, with over 12 credits.</p>
<p>We had an audit like this last year. More like NorthEastMom’s company - very thorough. I understand it uncovered many ineligible “dependents”. </p>
<p>I don’t understand why benefits departments haven’t been asking for the proof when you originally sign up. Seems like a lack of due diligence. With my employer, I was not surprised that this happened - but I was not aware this was a trend.</p>
<p>Well, I guess there is a silver lining in every cloud. We are self-pay and we pay for our dependents to the tune of about $1500/month. And I am uninsurable because of a health condition…</p>
<p>But we don’t have to worry about dependent audits!!!</p>
<p>I’ve received the letters asking about spouse coverage to determine whether I’m also covered under another plan for many years. These seek to find out if both spouses have dual coverage under two plans so that they can split the costs of services.</p>
<p>I’ve received phone calls on the status of my son in college before and I just told them where he’s attending and that he is attending full-time. I have seen corporate emails on dependents stating that random audits are done from time to time and that the employee will be responsible for the costs of insurance received by dependents that aren’t really dependents.</p>
<p>Our kids were both born while working for my current company so they have their birth information in the form of hospital bills.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of the other problems of covering neighbors and extended relatives. I guess that can happen. We really don’t use a lot of medical services so perhaps they mostly leave us alone.</p>
<p>On another matter, this week my company is doing I-9 verification. We have to bring in documents that will satisfy an I-9 form. I imagine that this might be a bit of a headache for some folks that don’t have handy access to the right documents.</p>
<p>^^^ We were required to bring in proof last fall. If you failed to bring in acceptable documentation by Dec 15, 2009………paychecks/pay-deposits would be held.</p>
<p>I wonder if the military will be doing the same thing.
I know a young man who was living in Columbia with his mother and extended family although his mother’s twin had married an American serviceman and lived in the US.</p>
<p>His mother wanted him to be able to attend school here so when he was 15 , his uncle adopted him and brought him here ( his mother came here soon after- with her husband - but they lived in another state). </p>
<p>My H owned a small company. They needed a minimum number of employees contributing a small amount of money each to get a new company health insurance policy. Quite a few turned out to be covered under their spouses’ plans and others resisted, saying the ER is always available. The company did get a policy but it was touch and go for a while. We never knew about the duplicate coverage until employees were asked to contribute their own money.
I am always asked for supplemental ID which is photocopied when I go to a new dr.</p>
We had an incident at the hospital in a town that has a local university. The hospital tries to get a scan of the drivers license and keep it on file, but it’s not required to be treated in the ER. Student A had previously been in the ER and had a medical file but no picture ID; Student B came to the ER with A’s insurance card and also no ID, and ended up being referred to a local physician for follow-up treatment and A’s medical records were furnished to him. She fessed up at that point, but it raised all sorts of issues such as transfusions with the wrong blood type, false info in the medical record-allergies, etc.</p>
<p>We are asked to verify college son’s eligibility every semester. H has to sign a form and we have to provide a copy of his class schedule (with name of institution, # of hours, date, his name & ID #) or a letter from the university with that info. We had to complete I-9 process at time of employment.</p>
<p>I am the HR lawyer (among other hats) for a large corporation. Some people truly believed they had legitimate dependents- i.e. grandparents who took over the care of an infant due to the death or incarceration of a parent many years ago. It can turn out that the child is not a legal dependent.
I, too, had to provide proof of my son’s full-time student status, but we were asked in July- no class schedule yet. I offered up the gigantic bill from Penn!<br>
The cost to insure employees is huge. Just huge. I fully support requiring proof of dependent and student status.</p>
<p>I guess that you could just send them an unofficial transcript which would indicate their year status. Son has already signed up for fall courses so his unofficial transcript would show his fall courses. A bill usually works too.</p>