HR error

[mosey63]

What is the name of your state? New York
I work at a community hospital. I started in Feb 2005. In June 2005 I converted to part time instead of full time. I applied for and received the new part time position through my HR dept. When I received my first PT paycheck I noticed that the cost of health insurance had gone up by 90%. I told the HR dept that I no longer wanted the health insurance as my husband also has insurance. I was just notified this past week that HR had forgotten to change my dental from 10% cost to 100% so they want me to pay back the difference. This adds up to $1600. When the HR director told me the cost for dental per month at this same meeting I told them I didn't want it anymore either. I was told I could purchase the union dental at about 1/2 the cost but I will not be allowed to purchase it until the benefit window time in January. I don't think I should be responsible for paying this amount since it was their error. I also think I should be allowed to sign up for the dental insurance now. Any ideas?

 

[cbg]

Federal law puts limits on when you can sign up for, drop, or make changes to insurance benefits. If you have not had a qualifying event or it is not open enrollment time, you cannot drop or change your coverage. That's the law. It's not up to your employer.

 

[mosey63]

Thank you- I didn't realize it was federal law that limited enrollment. I just thought that because of an HR error I am losing out on dental until January, they should be able to at least let me sign up early.

 

[mosey63]

hr error cont'd

what about the $1600. Am I legally responsible for paying that back to the hospital?

 

[ecmst12]

Ethically, I don't think they should be charging you, since if they had informed you at the time you changed from full time to part time (a qualifying event to add or drop coverage), you would have been able to drop the coverage then and wouldn't have to wait until the next open enrollment period now. But legally, I'm not sure - you did, in fact, have the coverage that whole time, so you should be responsible for paying for it. But perhaps you can negotiate with them to share the cost with you.