My employer, a company of 8 people, has cancelled our BCBS group health insurance policy and has agreed to pay for 8 individual policies. He has reassured us that he will be paying for them. However, he is asking us to sign a certification from BCBS that says we are personally “paying the entire premium and my employer is not contributing in any way to the payment…” It continues to say that we are giving authorization to deduct the premium from our pay checks,which is actually not true.My employer has also signed a document saying that they are only withdrawing the premium from our paycheck and that they are not paying for the premiums.I am very uncomfortable with this situation. Is this illegal? Why do I have to sign this certification if it was ok for my employer to pay the premium?
Answer by moderator - June 10, 2009 @ 7:59 pm No CommentsNo comments yet. Leave a comment |
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Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois does allow for employers to set up a list bill account, but only for the purpose of a billing convenience to the employees that collectively work for the same employer. Under this arrangement there can be no employer contribution of any premium, either directly or indirectly, including reimbursement or wage adjustments. If premium is submitted to BCBS by an employer with a list bill account, each individual must pay 100% of their premium. Furthermore, individual health insurance applications must be submitted to BCBS for each employee and BCBS has the right to deny coverage to any employee with a pre-existing medical condition. By asking you to sign a statement to BCBS that states otherwise, he is essentially asking you to falsify a document that violates Indiana State health insurance regulations. Employer paid health insurance is done through a group health insurance policy, not multiple individual health plans. Your employer sounds like he is just trying to help soften the blow of cancelling your group coverage, which he probably did because it got too expensive. If he wants to reimburse for health insurance, he should make this compensation through a salary increase and each employee should then be responsible for making their own premium payment directly to BCBS.
