Employer provided benefits changed, excluding me

I have been an employee of the same company for several years with excellent performance reviews. I relocated from Michigan to Texas to develop opportunity in Texas. Recently, our corporate medical benefits were changed and nobody at the corporate headquarters bothered to check if there were medical providers under the newly selected benefits plan available in Texas. The result is that it looks like I will not have employer provided benefits after the 1st of the year because of this oversight. Do I have any
decent options or recourse? Thanks!

You may want to check with your HR department re medical coverage in TX, although it is possible that there may be out of plan allowances since you are employed at a location outside of MI, or that you might receive compensation to buy insurance on your own.

Are you looking at this turn of events as a way to quit and void the contract you have re moving costs, as them breaking the contract?

sixfootjack said:

I relocated from Michigan to Texas at the request of my employer 18 months ago. I signed an agreement that if I terminated my employement before 2 years had elapsed, that I would be required to reimburse my employer for the expenses incurred during the relocation. I think they will think it too much trouble to produce an invoice for all of those expenses, so I expect them to simply hold my last 2 checks. Do I have any recourse, or do I just have to go without one month's pay?

thanks!

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You only have 4 months to go, do you already have another job lined up?

Barring a contract (not an offer letter, not an employee handbook, a CONTRACT) that specifically says otherwise, your employer has no legal obligation to provide any health insurance benefits at all.

Unless you have an employment contract guaranteeing you group health benefits, then no, you have no legal recourse.

If this employer doesn't customarily have employees working in other States, then I can understand how this happened. Changing from one insurance carrier to another sounds simple enough but it is hugely complicated and I expect in all the hub-bub, they simply overlooked you.

What you should do is to speak to your boss and to HR immediately and ask what they're going to do for you. Working with their broker/agent, it should be possible for them to obtain coverage just for you, whether through the insurance company they switched to (if they're licensed in Texas) or through another carrier.

I am still working in good faith toward my company's stated goals

I am doing whatever I can for the good of my employer, this is just another nuisance I have to wade through on my personal time due to administrative carelessness and lack of policy, structure and strategy which is common in fast-growing companies. I have accepted that I will likely be with my current employer at least until the contract terms are fullfilled unless they decide it is better to remove me from payroll rather than deal with the benefits problem. I just cannot predict on any level what my employer's next action will be based on my previous experiences, therefore I have to constantly manage my risks so I can continue to feed my family should bizarre things happen. This is why I post questions to find out the lows and highs of my various options. I do not have a specific job lined up...I just talk to a lot of people because it will help me if I need to get a job soon, and it will be helpful to my employer's business in the event I stay in their service.

Thanks again!