Retroactive Termination

[rachelagogo]

I'll try to make this short: My husband has been a part-time on-call employee since March of last year (at Target). We were receiving our benefits thru them and we were paying our premiums out of pocket. (Not taken out of his check).

Things were fine. In Sept we checked to make sure our coverage was active and again in December. Both times they said our coverage was fine.

Last month we received a letter saying his termination date was 7/2/05 and are charging us for all services (and recouping the $ from the dr's offices). This amounts to about $6000 b/c of a hospital stay.

Can they terminate him without his knowledge?--especially when they told us our coverage was fine in sept and dec? Can they take away our insurance retroactively? Target is a self-insured group if that helps any...

[Neal1421]

Duplicate post

[url]http://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=309191[/url]

[somarco]

Why were premiums paid direct, not via payroll deduction?

To whom did you give the premiums? Do you have cancelled checks or some kind of receipt to prove you paid the premiums? Do you have some kind of certification from the carrier indicating your husband met their eligibility requirements?

Who told you in September & December your coverage was "OK"? Do you have this in writing?

[rachelagogo]

Since he was not working enough hours for the full amount to come out of his check, we were paying the full amount. I DO have cancelled checks. In order to be eligible for coverage he had to work an avg of 30 hrs/week, if he fell below this he would not be able to re-enroll the next go-round. (Which would have been Jan 06). I called Target Team Member Services (corporate HR) to verify he was employed and he had insurance. I do not have this in writing.

[somarco]

If he did not qualify under the definition (30 hours) then your money was paid for nothing.

Sounds like you need a refund of monies paid for coverage that could not be offered due to eligibility issues.

Of course if you can prove your case, that you were told (in writing is preferable) that coverage would be extended IF you paid a premium, and if you were told (preferably in writing) that he was covered under the plan, then that is something to pursue.

But proving all of this, and getting the coverage you want, may be impossible. At the least you should get the refund and ask for some kind of discount for prompt payment of the net bill from the hospital.