So the lady in Admin sends a company wide email that we are going with a different dental plan this year and blah blah blah. I delete the email because I don’t have a dental plan and could care less what the company gets.
Turns out he email was also to organize meetings with the dental provider so that you could sit through their presentation and then sign up for it. If you didn’t want it, you signed a waiver. Why do I have to sit through the fucking meeting and sign a goddamned waiver if I don’t want it? I already have to work late today. I don’t need the stupidass delay. I don’t want it. Take my absence as your answer.
But noooooooooooooooooooo those of us heathens who DIDN’T show up for the presentation are sent emails to get the fucking waivers signed. WHY? I don’t want it. I didn’t indicate any interest in it. Why am I automatically entered into the system? Isn’t this enforced solicitation? Isn’t this something they do in fascist Russia or communist Germany?
SO I go down there and make my grievances known to the Admin lady. She gives me one of those “poor dear” smiles like you give to the cantankerous old senior citizen who complains about the kids running through his yard and tells me “That’s just the way the system works. Everybody has to fill out paperwork at some or another.” It’s a fucking 12-page form and I have to fill out my personal info and the date I began working at my company, God only knows why, check the box saying I don’t want coverage, then sign my name and PRINT IT OUT SO THE FORM PROCESSING MONKEYS CAN READ IT.
Come ON! Haven’t you ever heard of ergonomics? You design your most efficient workflow with the least amount of holdups as possible. Why automatically sign me up than make me sign back off? It’s just extra paperwork that increases everybody’s time, dispirits all the productivity of the workers, and plunges society into a depressed distopia worthy of a Kafka novel. I DON’T WANT YOUR GODDAMN DENTAL PLAN! STICK IT UP YOUR FORM 33.453-A ASS!
You’re saying that now, but wait until you knock your front teeth out and decide to try to scam the company by telling them that you did sign up for it, and THEY must have lost the paperwork.
That’s much harder to pull off if they have a signed document saying you waive your right to the plan…
You’re not automatically entered. As Midget said, they just want to make sure you know that if you don’t sign up, you have no coverage. That’s to avoid having people come back later and claim they “didn’t know” they had to sign up for the plan in order to actually get insurance.
I am sure you’re still annoyed, but yes, there’s a reason for them to ask you to sign the form.
While that’s a reason for getting a signature on something, it’s not really a justification for having them fill out a 12-page form. A half-page waiver form would be sufficient.
If it’s really a 12-page form. Sometimes people who are mad are prone to exaggeration. I have administered many dental plans and have never seen a 12-pages-long dental form of any kind, let alone a decline-enrollment form. Not to say they don’t exist.
Or, perhaps the enrollment form and the waiver form are combined into one. If so, there could be 11 pages that are unnecessary to someone who is not actually enrolling.
If there are truly 12 pages of fields to fill in just to say that one doesn’t wish to enroll, then I would agree that is way too much of an imposition.
That is pretty timely for me. I am building a simulator for a big HR system right now. An analyst just told me that some of my calculations are wrong. Some people that aren’t signed up for anything are down as NOTHING in my system when they should clearly be qualified for “No Coverage”. Furthermore, not everyone qualifies for “No Coverage”. The rules are complex and we are going to have to work it out later. I am not making this up.
Whoops, apologies for the confusion. It was a 12-page form, but I only had to fill out the top half of p1 and sign the bottom of p2.
missbunny, supposing I did try to pull one over on the system. If there’s no paperwork showing that I signed up for anything, why isn’t that just my tough luck? That’s how people are prevented from making bogus winning lottery ticket claims.
[QUOTE=Knowed Out]
As an employer who offers medical and dental insurance and oversee the forms involved, I am here to tell you…A waiver is WRITTEN PROOF that an employee was offered medical/dental insurance and the employee voluntarily waived the right to accept the insurance. This keeps the employee honest AS WELL AS the employer honest. For a company to be eligible for GROUP COVERAGE, the employer has to show that they qualify with x number of employees regardless of how many actually sign up for coverage. That’s where waivers come in. It may seem an inconvenience to you to fill out, but it helps your fellow employees secure insurance at more affordable rates (to the employee/r). Next time, maybe you should stick to a mom-n-pop operation so they won’t bother you by not offering any insurance.
As for 12 pages…I’ll have to ask for a cite of the insurance company that may provide the forms online…that amount is laughable. We have a 3 page form that only has 2 small sections (less than a third of a page) to fill out if you are waiving any/all coverage.
Part of the deal the company cut with the provider may have been contingent on a certain percentage (100%, say) sitting through the sales pitch for the provider’s service. Since you didn’t see the shiny powerpoint presentation, they might feel you may not be paying for something you would have if you had gone to the presentation.
Your company cares about you, the employee, and wants to make sure that you are aware of your rights and possibilities, and they don’t know for sure that you can make a proper decision concerning, say, dental care, if you don’t have all the facts.
Ooops, didn’t preview to see this. WRITTEN PROOF is always better than lack of any proof…besides, employers usually have the burden of proof to show that they offered the insurance, and this is the most straightfoward method. Even if the employee refused but didn’t fill out anything, the employer may still be on the hook for providing the insurance if the employee knowingly and blatantly decided to change his/her mind and wanted the insurance at a later date (outside of the re-sign period). There is no comparison to the lottery in this regard. It’s not your company that’s putting you through the wringer on these forms, it’s the insurance companies and state/fed regulations that are making companies do this…YMMV. But this is done in the best interest for employees who were overlooked when they qualified for insurance and also for employers to keep true and accurate records of their employees vs. insured employees.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way with group insurance coverage. Your employer has certified to the carrier(s) that they have X employees and Y insurance plans, and Z employees are eligible for coverage and offered coverage. The carrier wants proof that that is true. Employees who participate divided by total eligible employees are in part what determines premium cost.
Right. This way also means that the employer can’t save themselves money by “forgetting” to offer said insurance to people who would actually have used it if it had been offered. It protects the employees as much as the employers.
Come on Eth, you know the drill by now. First they took away the Jews, and I didn’t say anything. Then they took away the Blacks, and I didn’t say anything. Now they’re taking ME away!