HR to audit eligibility of insurance dependents

UNM Human Resources is requiring all employees with department health insurance to complete audits verifying dependents’ eligibility on their plan.

HR Vice President Helen Gonzales said this is a first for her department. She said in a letter to employees that medical costs have risen 104 percent since 2000.

“The University is protecting the solvency of the medical plan and its employees from unnecessary increases in the cost of health care,” she said. “A dependent eligibility audit is the best way to ensure that University funds are only supporting eligible employees and their dependents.”

Gonzales said an estimated 3-8 percent of listed dependents are ineligible for coverage. She said each dependent costs the University about $3,000 per year.

“The financial impact of these ineligible dependents is significant,” Gonzales said. “It has been estimated that UNM will save approximately $500,000.”

Gonzales said that the audit is the latest step in HR’s attempt to keep health insurance premiums low.
“For the last three years, we’ve only had to increase employee premiums by an average of 2 percent,” Gonzales said. “This contrasts with a national average of almost 10 percent.”

Gonzales said employees who do not fill out the audit form by the Oct. 26 deadline or who enter inaccurate or incomplete information will have their dependents dropped from their health insurance plans, even if they were eligible.

She said employees have been notified about the mandatory audit through e-mails, letters sent to home addresses and by department heads. In addition to the questionnaire, some employees may have to submit birth or marriage certificates and federal tax returns, Gonzales said.

Faculty Senate member Gautam Vora, who filled out the forms for his wife and sons, said the audit was complicated.
“The instruction sheet was not exactly comprehensive, and so during the survey much more information was asked,” Vora said. “One had to struggle to get it. It wanted a large amount of information that a lot of people might actually forget, such as the time and the place of marriage, especially when there are multiple marriages one might get easily confused.”

Vora said HR shouldn’t just drop people haphazardly.

“I hope our HR department (will do) some homework before it drops anyone automatically, so that employees, who for one reason or another, who didn’t get the chance, who didn’t fill out the information completely and correctly, get some notice before action is taken,” he said.

Steven Yourstone, another Faculty Senate member who had one listed dependent, said the questionnaire was easy.
“It was pretty simple and quick,” he said.