Health Insurance and Dependents

[Guest Benefit Specialist]

We have a policy that if an employee wants to add a grandchild on their health insurance, they must prove that they are providing full support for this child and the child resides in their home. This either needs done within 30 days of the birth or at open enrollment. We also ask they provide us annually their tax return to show they claim this grandchild (with financials blackened out). We recently had an employee not return the annual tax return because they thought they could get medical assistance for the child. Well they cannot get assistance because the household makes too much money so they would like to add the grandchild back on coverage. The child was removed at open enrollment and I do not see a qualifying event here that allows them to add her right now. I see no problem doing it at open enrollment but let me know your thoughts. Thank you in advance for your help.

[leevena]

Since they voluntarily deleted the grandchild it appears as though they will need to wait until open enrollment. I don't have all the details, but there may be other types of coverages or services available to this child. States have various options available. Check out the NAHU website, under the Consumer Information, Healthcare Data Base for some tips.