Why would a company deny adding a stepchild to an employee’s family health plan when he was able to add his wife (the child’s mother)?
There are instances when a child is listed as a dependent on more than one of his or her parent’s family health plan. Moreover, he or she may be included in his stepparent’s family health plan as well without repercussions. If the child is covered in more than one insurance, it may be listed as secondary or third party insurance. However, in 2007, a federal judge in a US District Court required a company to provide health insurance for an employee’s stepchild. Before the ruling, the company denied the stepchild coverage in the family health plan citing that the child was not qualified in their group insurance policy guidelines. The company’s guidelines stated that stepchildren must have been living with their stepparents (employees) for a certain period. The child must also be declared as dependent in the income tax return. It also stated under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), a Qualified Medical Child Support Order, that an alternate recipient, may be the direct recipient of the stepparent’s company group family health plan. In this case, the alternate recipient is the stepchild of the employee. You may need to check with the carrier first if they have separate provisions on adding a stepchild in a company’s group family health plan. Answer by VALegal - June 3, 2009 @ 6:46 pm 1 CommentLeave a comment |
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Since this is more of an insurance issue, it is usually best discussed directly with the carrier of the employee’s 
You can add dependents to the group health plan. The question is not specific to as to if this step-child is a qualified dependent of the primary insured on the group health plan. A child of another dependent on the group plan does not guarantee acceptance
Comment by Moderator — June 24, 2009 @ 10:59 pm