DH's company doing a dependant audit for health care. Your thoughts?

[floridafam]

DH's company has hired an outside company to do a dependant health care benefit audit.

We have to send in our marriage license, birth certificates, last year's tax return, etc. to this company otherwise all health coverage will be dropped.

Your thoughts??

We have nothing to hide but I can't help feeeling uneasy about this. I know nothing about the company that does this (BUDCO) like what type of people they have working for them, who sees the information and things like that.

 

[mumom95]

DH's company has hired an outside company to do a dependant health care benefit audit.

We have to send in our marriage license, birth certificates, last year's tax return, etc. to this company otherwise all health coverage will be dropped.

Your thoughts??

We have nothing to hide but I can't help feeeling uneasy about this. I know nothing about the company that does this (BUDCO) like what type of people they have working for them, who sees the information and things like that.

I don't have a problem with it. I do see what your saying about not knowing anything about the other company though. Hopefully your dh's company checked them out before hiring them.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Wow--I would not be happy about giving away that much info to a third party company, but not sure what if anything you can do about it. I don't think it's unreasonable to want to know background info about the company who is doing the audit and why they chose that company. The whole health insurance thing drives me a little nuts. We found out two weeks ago we have to find a new doctor in the middle of a contract because one of the local hospital/doctor groups and the insurance company can't play nice.

 

[Christine]

My husband is insured through his employer (a union) and they are self-insured. Periodically, they do an audit on us and ask for copies of marriage license, birth certificate, tax forms also. I know why they do it and I don't have a problem with it since it is the union afterall. But since yours is an independent company, I would at least ask your own company what their privacy act assurances are. I mean, you really are handing over enough information for anyone to steal your identity.

 

[candykisses]

We were just notified last week that our company will also be doing a dependent audit.

I wasn't too concerned until the HR director said they may ask for the tax return. There is information on my tax return that I don't think my company needs to have access too such as my investment income.

We'll see what happens.

 

[mumom95]

We were just notified last week that our company will also be doing a dependent audit.

I wasn't too concerned until the HR director said they may ask for the tax return. There is information on my tax return that I don't think my company needs to have access too such as my investment income.

We'll see what happens.

You may be able to white out that information. I'm guessing all they want to see is that you filed married.

 

[jlima]

We were just notified last week that our company will also be doing a dependent audit.

I wasn't too concerned until the HR director said they may ask for the tax return. There is information on my tax return that I don't think my company needs to have access too such as my investment income.

We'll see what happens.

They may be looking for who you are claiming as a dependent; and how that compares to who they are covering.

At other jobs I've had, I've had to show birth certificates & marriage license when I was hired, but never a tax return.

Be glad your employer's insurance covers your spouse & kids; my new job does not. They will pay half of my premium; but nothing for DH & my 2 DSs. I have to pay $175, per week, if I want their insurance.

 

[EthansMom]

We just had to do this for DH's work.

You can white/black out the personal information ($$$ and SSI #s) on tax forms. But the birth certificates had to be certified (stamped) compies. Thankfully, I had extras on hand, but I did send a SASE and ask that they be returned to me, if possible. Haven't gotten them back yet. Those suckers are like $20 each!!!

Plus, DH's company had a deadline (send in by X date or lose your coverage ) and then it took them 3 or 4 weeks before they sent out a letter verifying that everything was in order.

IMO, a stressful and somewhat expensive process. I wonder how many people they are actually "catching".

 

[clh2]

Our employer has not ever done this particulare type of audit. My employer has started requesting proof that someone older than 18 is in school, i.e. seeing a school registration form, tuition receipts etc.

I would be ticked off beyond the beyond if I needed to "pay" for such documentation i.e. a marriage license or a birth certificate.

And - I wouldn't be too happy about giving someone my tax return either, way too much info on that one. Way too much.

 

[PlutoPony]

We just went through this with my husband's company, it was straightforward and very easy to do.

*To prove our son is his dependent, a copy (not original) of his birth certificate was all that was needed.
* For a spouse, we needed the front page only of our 1040 tax return. There were VERY specific instructions about what information to white out - that included ALL financial $ figures and the first 5 digits of everyone's social security number.

Obviously other info is needed in more complicated cases - i.e. adoptions, guardianships, and especially children over 18 who can still be covered (still in school). The latter is where we heard they had most of the ineligible dependent coverage problems.

I don't give personal info out freely, but can't imagine that the above info is too sensitive to provide for this purpose. And frankly given the cost of medical insurance these days (and the amount of fraud that goes on) I think they have a right to require proof that your dependents are legit.

 

[jsmith]

PlutosPony is correct-its not as painful as it sounds and it does help keep your costs down-because there is an incredible amount of fraud out there-in fact if we could kill fraud and legal awards health insurance would actually be affordable for all-but thats another topic. My company does this bi-annually and everyone who gets any kind of insurance from the company benefits program.I take dental and vision on my younger son and my self only as these programs are better coverage than what the military provides -but we do not use company health coverage-and i am still required to participate in the audits-but if it keeps costs down for everyone i dont see it as an evil thing.

 

[leilaandjamilsmom]

DH's company has hired an outside company to do a dependant health care benefit audit.

We have to send in our marriage license, birth certificates, last year's tax return, etc. to this company otherwise all health coverage will be dropped.

Your thoughts??

We have nothing to hide but I can't help feeeling uneasy about this. I know nothing about the company that does this (BUDCO) like what type of people they have working for them, who sees the information and things like that.

My company here in Michigan just hired an outside company for the same thing, I had to send in birth certificates and all that also. I know how you felt I felt the same way, but I turned it in and everything was fine

 

[EthansMom]

*To prove our son is his dependent, a copy (not original) of his birth certificate was all that was needed.

I wouldn't have minded as much if we could send a photocopy. Ours had to be certified birth certificates. They even included instructions on how to order them if you didn't have a certified copy sitting around.

 

[floridafam]

DH did say that we could black out financial information and most of the SS numbers on the tax return.

He said we should be receiving something by mail. I have everything they need and can make copies. If they need certified ones then I will have to get our marriage license becuase I have several certified copies of each child's birth certificate.

I did feel a little uneasy but I guess it's necessary. We are very grateful for the wonderful benefits we have through his employer.

I just wish I knew for sure that the work wasn't outsourced to a prison or something. You hear all those strange stories on TV and it makes you wonder.

 

[Starbrite]

Must be that time of year ~ My company just announced they're doing the same thing. I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Would they also be looking for any divorce documents showing which parent is responsible for the insurance? I don't have anything like that.

 

[tar heel]

Nothing particularly new. While my DH's company does not ask for that much, when I was covered on his insurance, we had to certify that I was not eligible for group insurance at my employment twice a year. Random people are audited periodically -- finding out a spouse is insurance eligible at their company is grounds for termination.

We also have to send our college student's schedule and bill each year to prove he's a full time student.

 

[DebbieB]

My company did one last year. I don't have any dependents so I don't know what was required. My company allows domestic partners, I wondered how they prove that. It's more than just living at the same address.

 

[RNMOM]

I think it is a good thing for companies to do. I called our insurer a couple times over the past few years as they still had our youngest son listed as a dependent even though he was not eligible. He is no longer listed. I wonder if the insurance company was charging DH's employer for his coverage illegally as when I called they always told me 'not to worry about it'.

 

[PlutoPony]

I wouldn't have minded as much if we could send a photocopy. Ours had to be certified birth certificates. They even included instructions on how to order them if you didn't have a certified copy sitting around.

We had the option of sending info in OR faxing it. Since it's virtually impossible to determine if a faxed birth cert is real (no seal) I'm guessing that's why they didn't require a certified copy.

If you chose to mail the "proof" in, they were up front about not returning the info to you.....

 

[PlutoPony]

This is the first time the company has done this. It was interesting - they first gave you the option to remove anyone currently covered (i.e. take off someone that wasn't eligible) with no questions asked. After that, you had to prove that anyone you were still choosing to cover was indeed eligible. IMO that was a very fair way of going about the whole thing.