Missed Open Enrollment w/ my Husband's Company - HELP!!!!?

Question

If you are someone who works in HR, for BCBS, or possibly someone who has done the same thing before, can you advise me on how my husband and I can plea for help in giving us Mon to complete our open enrollment for insurance. The crucial part of it is that we have about $1500K in upfront expenses for the birth of our first child plus we are buying a new home. The flex psending account would be very useful for us for the labor/delivery costs since we have so many big, big expenses inf ront of us. Do we have a chance? It was suppose to be finsiehd by 11/9, but we hope, hope, hope (after my husband makes a plea to HR on MOn) that they will give us Mon. Any thoughts?

My husband works for Accenture not BCBS. BCBS is his insurance carrier.

They only gave us 10 days to for open enrollment. I know this seems like a long time, but it really is difficult whne he travels 100% and we only have weekends. Whine-whine -whine (ha). I know .. I have excuses. I sure do hate that this has happened. Thanks for everyone's help.

All great answers with straight forward answers. THNAKS. We are going to be on this like stink on poo first thing Mon. I will keep you posted, and I will give a best answer. :) THANKS.

Answer 1

It is the companies discrention.

You will want to call into your HR department and advise the reasons why you were unable to participate in the open enrollment period. You will want to provide examples such as denied access because of technical problems, family conflicts etc...

The company is unlikely to re-open the period unless there are extrodinary circumstances given that they would open themselves up to discrimination. They must give all employees the same opportunity to enroll and special situations must be rule upon consistently across of the board.

As a sales executive for a major carrier myself, I see companies that strictly enforce the period while others more liberal. My qualified guestimation would be that BCBS would be on the more strict side given this is what they do for a living.

Once again, go in there with ammunition otherwise, you will have to wait for the child to be born to re-enter. "Qualifying event as defined by the Health Insurance Portability Act"

Answer 2

From my experience, many companies strictly enforce the open enrollment deadlines. (The reason being is that if they granted you a late exception, then they'd have to grant late exceptions to everyone.) However, it couldn't hurt to ask your husband's HR rep - you don't know whether they'll make an exception unless you ask.

If I read your question correctly, you're hoping to enroll late into a flex spending account...not the actual medical insurance program? On the bright side, at least it sounds like you'll still have medical coverage for the birth...just possibly will miss out on some of the tax breaks that come with flex spending.

But keep in mind that from the HR person's perspective, generally you have a period of several weeks to complete open enrollment info. If this were truly so crucial to your family, the HR dept might wonder why you didn't make it more of a priority to get taken care of in a timely manner. So, don't take it personally if they don't give you an exception.

Good luck though

Answer 3

I hope they do, but you're going to have to present a good reason why they should.
Such periods are strictly enforced, and being "busy" doesn't qualify as an excuse.If theyopen the door for you, there will be someone else with a very compelling excuse.
If he was traveling, he should be right outside HR's door when they open up tomorrow morning.