is it really your spouse?

mushroomHR

How would you go about verifying that someone who has requested FML for their spouse's serious health condition is really married? We have several individuals who refer to their significant other as a "spouse" although I know they aren't married as they do not have a spouse enrolled on our health plan. (Everyone enrolls their spouse on our plan even though their spouse has access to their own coverage through their employer because we do not have employee contributions to our health plan. We the employer, pay the entire premium so everyone enrolls their spouse in our plan and drops the spouse's plan so they don't have to pay.)

Would you just take their word that it is their spouse? or ask for some proof?

Thanks.

Don D

You're jumbling problems and that's against the rules on Thursdays.

Regarding your insurance, for the sake of your company's bottom line you should immediately go to a program that charges the employee a ton of money to carry a spouse if she has access to other coverage. That's keeps our costs down tremendously.

Regarding the FMLA question, I don't think I've ever considered having someone prove the relationship. Would you do the same for a dependent child, a parent? And if you do it for one, will you do it for all? That may be your answer! An FMLA DOL investigator will ding you for inconsistent program operation if someone complains that you hassled them through this proof element and didn't do it consistently.

By the way, our company requires documented proof of dependency for our insurance enrollments and that would suffice for your FMLA issue as well if that were in place.

System

You might want to consider whether these significant others are actually common-law spouses. Some states recognize common-law marriages (i.e., they shacked up so long they're as good as married), other states don't. I think common-law spouses are included in FMLA, but I'm not sure.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

psrcello

Yes, a common law spouse is a legal spouse in the states that recongize common law marriage. Here in Nebraska, we don't. However, I spent 12 years in Iowa, which is right across the river from Omaha. It doesn't even take a specific "shack-up" period to prove common law in Iowa - just that the couple live together and hold themselves out in public as husband and wife.

Anyone out there from California? Do you require copies of "domestic partnership" certificates in order to allow FMLA leave to care for a same-sex partner?

Carey

For CFRA leave (CA's FMLA) we don't require a marriage certificate for opposite sex spouses, so we would not discriminate and require one for a domestic partner. Domestic partners aren't covered by FMLA, so an employee can take 12 weeks under CFRA to care for a domestic partner or the DP's child and then take another 12 weeks later for their own serious illness or other qualifying FMLA event, so they actually can get 24 weeks. That's a nice little perk the legislators didn't foresee.

jampc

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-18-04 AT 10:11AM (CST)[/font][br][br]<<<<Regarding your insurance, for the sake of your company's bottom line you should immediately go to a program that charges the employee a ton of money to carry a spouse if she has access to other coverage. That's keeps our costs down tremendously.>>>> Don, can you selectively not insure spouses? For example, can you charge for a spouse that can access coverage as opposed to a spouse who can't? Wouldn't this be discriminatory? Maybe I misunderstand your response and you company requires all dependents and/or spouses to be paid for by the employee.