I-9 Forms

[Guest dkl2214]

One of my health plans has a provision in place clarifying that they will not cover undocumented or illegal workers. The administrator is interested in sending an I-9 form with the initial enrollment material. Is this permitted under federal law? Also, any what other steps do plans take to ensure all participants are legal?

[mbozek]

One of my health plans has a provision in place clarifying that they will not cover undocumented or illegal workers. The administrator is interested in sending an I-9 form with the initial enrollment material. Is this permitted under federal law? Also, any what other steps do plans take to ensure all participants are legal?

I dont understand your Q. I-9 is required to be completed within 3 days after employee starts work. Many employers require I-9 to be completed before employee reports for first day to make sure that employee will not be terminated for failure to provide documentation. Employee is required to provide original documentation such as birth cert., driver's licenses, passport, SS card, etc when turning in I-9. Health ins coverage is usually made available on the first day of employment and employees have 30 days to enroll. Since employee must provide original documentation to complete I-9 when employee starts work why does admin need to provide I -9 in enrollment materials? Secondly, how would admin verify the documents needed to approve I-9 application?

[GMK]

The employer has the responsibility of verifying employees' authorization to work in the US (I-9).

The employer is also responsible for securing the privacy of personal information on the form. In a quick search I found this, which may or may not answer your question:

http://www.visalaw.com/compliance/i9.html

"What privacy protections are accorded employees when they complete Form I-9?

DHS regulations state that information contained on the Form I-9 may only be used to verify an individual’s identity and employment eligibility and to enforce immigration law. Presumably this bars both the government as well as employers for using I-9 information for any other purposes.

Employers with electronic I-9 systems are also required to implement a records security program that ensures that only authorized personnel have access to electronic records, that such records are backed up, that employees are trained to minimize the risk of records being altered and that whenever a record is created, accessed, viewed, updated, or corrected, a secure and permanent record is created establishing who accessed the record."

I would balk at sending the I-9 to the health plan. Instead, I would agree to certifying to the health plan that I have a completed I-9 on file for the person, explaining the personal information privacy issue. For example, the health plan is using the information to confirm 'legality' under immigration law, not to enforce immigration law. But others may have a more learned answer.

The employer can use E-Verify to confirm the information on the I-9. If you use E-Verify, you could certify to health plan that the person was OKed by E-Verify and that you have the case report on file.

[masteff]

So the administrator is alleging that management is illegally hiring undocumented workers? And the administrator feels it's his/her duty to backdoor enforcement via the health plan instead of reporting mgmt to the proper authority?

Perhaps you should give the administrator some light reading: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/m-274.pdf Be sure to point out page 27 which discusses "document abuse".