Adding Spouse While Employee is on WC Leave of Absence

[Christine Roberts]

An employee of "Company A" who is on extended workers compensation leave is paying his portion of group health insurance with after tax money. Company A is continuing to subsidize its portion of coverage.

Employee's spouse has lost job with Company B and employee wants to add her as a dependent to his plan, in lieu of her selecting COBRA with Company B.

Can Company A require its employee to pay the full portion of dependent coverage for his spouse (no employer subsidy)? I am presuming there is no way to force the spouse to elect COBRA coverage.

[KIP KRAUS]

Christine;

The first thing is that the spouse has a qualifying event, because group coverage was lost.

Assuming that the employer is treating other dependents similarly, I see no reason why the employee can’t be forced to pay the full dependent premium.

Having said that, however, the employer may have a written policy regarding medical coverage while on Workers’ Comp., if so, it may be different than the policy for active employees.

What is the employer’s policy?