Clements

It's my understanding that when an employee makes an "impossible" election such as this, it can be corrected, so long as there is clear and convincing evidence of the mistake. For a good explanation, refer to Your Questions on the third page of this McGraw Wentworth ViewsLetter: http://www.mcgrawwentworth.com/Viewsletter/2004/2004_Issue1.pdf. It's old, but explains this clearly. Having said that, I don't know whether a change would be permissible in 2015 for 2014.

We have an employee going through a divorce, and her husband was under the impression that he was covered by her insurance here, though he has never been since she started working here 14 months ago. We're a small company, so I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I'm pretty sure that we're allowed to add the husband mid-year if we receive a court order that we must cover him. The employee has asked me if she could subsequently drop him from coverage mid-year if she received a court order stating that she must. I suspect that it would be permissible, but haven't ever heard of a court order which states coverage must end. Is anyone able to share more information about this with me? Thanks for your help, and happy new year to all!

Most plans I've worked on don't enroll in COBRA until the first payment is received. Whenever I'm counseling someone about COBRA, I mention that he or she should consider sending payment in with the election form for that reason.