Exclude employees with spouses who could offer them health coverage?

[Guest Paulaangell]

Has anyone heard of a plan that would not allow an employee to take health insurance if his or her spouse had a plan under which the employee would be eligible? I don't understand why the employer would want to do this, since it would raise nondiscrimination flags, but one of the brokers we deal with has the situation. The employer does not want to offer coverage to anyone whose spouse has coverage that would be available to the employee. Would this present a state law issue?

[Guest KGibson]

I have seen this on a self funded plan before. It was their way of keeping as many people off the plan to keep costs as low as possible. They can only do that if the employee provides, even on form without documentation, something to state they have other coverage or they may run into a lot of trouble. And needless to say, it is very bad on employee morale because they feel the company does not care about them. Good luck.