not given insurance information

[julie1965ohio]

What is the name of your state? ohio

I began employment in my current job on 12/08/04. I was told I would have insurance after 60 days, I completed the insurance papers within the first 30 days of employment as requested. I got ill and inquired about my insurance cards so that I could see my doctor on 2/8/05. I was told at that time that insurance began after 90 days. I was unable to go to my family doctor without insurance and went to Stat Care for treatment. I was off work 2 days with an excuse and returned to work but was still ill. The following week I got worse and returned to Stat Care because I still could not see my doctor without an insurance card. I missed an additional 5 days of work and returned the following week, still ill but because my doctors excuse from Stat Care told me to return I did. The next week when I went to get my paycheck on Friday it was unavailable to me. I was told I had to pay them $76.20 before I could get my pay because my insurance was in effect as of 2/1/05 and they forgot to deduct the payment and forgot to give me my insurance cards. Once I received the insurance cards I went to my family doctor and was diagnosed with a severe case of pnemonia that went untreated by Stat Care (they didn't do tests because I didn't have insurance). I ended up missing another entire week of work and now have $700 in unpaid medical bills from Stat Care, not to mention the prescriptions I had to pay out of pocket when I went to Stat Care. Do I have any recourse since I was: 1) not given the insurance information when it was available to me 2) forced to pay them out of pocket with a personal check to cover insurance for a period of time that they did not make coverage available to me (they refused to give me my paycheck until I gave them a check or cash for the $76.20). In addition they are now deducting more from my pay for the next two pays ($114 instead of $76) and stating that it is back pay for insurance coverage.
I appreciate your time in answering this for me.

 

[pattytx]

I've been in payroll for 27 years, and I've never heard of "holding" your paycheck; in fact, they can't do that by law. Do you have it now? Did you pay the amount? In any case, it is perfectly acceptable for them to deduct back premiums that should have been deducted earlier and they should have done that for the $76.20 you had to "pay" to get your check. That's a piece of you-know-what.

I'm going to let someone else address the issue of the personal funds that you put out when you actually did have coverage, but didn't know it (at least that's the way I understood your post).

 

[julie1965ohio]

Thanks for responding to my question.

I did receive my paycheck but since I got it late I wasn't able to deposit it on payday which caused me to get to NSF fee's from my bank.

I do understand that they have the right to deduct insurance premiums from my pay but I didn't think they could make me pay it out of my own personal account and hold my paycheck as ranson becuase of their error. I am still furious over the fact that I actually asked about insurance at the beginning of February and was told I wouldn't be covered until March when I was actually covered the whole month of February. I asked because according to my employee handbook I should have been covered as of February 1st. Not only did their error cost me the money I had to pay out of pocket, it also caused me to miss more work than I would have had to (all unpaid) because I couldn't get the treatment I needed to get better. In addition my doctor has told me that my lungs are now damaged for a while because I wasn't treated right for so long. Unfortunately these aren't the only problems that I have experienced with this company which prompted me to quit the company yesterday. Do I have any recourse to try and recover anything due to one employee that admitted that she had my insurance information for the entire month and just forgot to give it to me?

 

[pattytx]

You could speak to the benefits administrator or HR Manager regarding the out-of-pocket medical costs you expended due to the error. They may be willing to reimburse you some or all, due to the company's error. You really have no legal recourse that I can see off the top of my head, against the employer or the employee that made the error (we all make errors, after all ). Considering, though, that they played that paycheck game, I am not optimistic that they will try to make this error right,.

However, it is your responsibility to make sure you have funds in your account before you write checks against the account. The NSF fees are your responsibility.

If they ever try this "holding your check for ransom" idiocy again, tell them you are going to file a claim for unpaid wages with the Ohio Dept. of Labor. There is no excuse for this action.

Oops, I just reread your post and see that you quit. Doesn't sound like a good place to work, anyway. I'll leave what I said above, though, so maybe other people can benefit from it.

Good luck.