Surprise! I'm a father

WO

We have a long term single male employee who has just surprised us by adding a newborn son to his health insurance, 30 days after the birth. HR had no knowledge of any pending birth.

We now understand that co-workers and supervisors were aware that he was strongly refusing his parentage until after birth and a DNA test was performed.

I have no wish to deny health coverage to any child if it is an employee's dependent. But feel HR should follow up with request for birth certificate or some documentation to verify as a dependent.

Any thoughts or advice?

marc

We require a copy of the birth certificate to add a newborn or a copy of adoption papers for newly adopted children. This is normal course of business for us. Treat them all the same.

njjel

If you require birth certificates for all ee's newborns then you may require it of him. We do not require birth certificates.

atrimble

Most of our insurance benefits can be processed online so it's not required of us to provide evidence of eligibility. But if the DoInsurance investigated our insurers and they required the eligibility proof of us, we'd have it available - we do require copies of divorce decrees, marriage certificates, birth certificates, etc. and I keep them attached to the signed applications.

However, I'd agree with the other poster on maintaining standard practice. If you don't already require these things, don't start right now. I'd suggest beginning the practice at the start of a new plan year with due notification to all participants (and those pending participation).

WO

We do not as a regular practice require birth certs, but do require marriage, divorce decree, court orders. We usually know far in advance re: a pending birth and don't have eligibility questions. Our mistake I guess.