June 25, 2009

Staff Benefits thanks faculty, staff as dependent verification process ends

About 92 percent of Purdue faculty and staff who cover dependents on their Purdue medical plan stepped up and got the job done when asked to complete the Dependent Eligibility Verification process this spring.

The verification process was conducted to gather the Social Security numbers of Purdue medical plan dependents, as required now by the federal government, and to verify that everyone enrolled in the Purdue medical plans was eligible for coverage.

Staff Benefits worked with Mercer, a respected human resources consulting firm, to accomplish the audit. In mid-June, Mercer sent letters to all Purdue employees with medical plan dependents. The letters confirmed whether the employee had successfully completed the verification process.

When the confirmation letters were mailed, more than 6,400 employees had completed the process successfully, about 300 had filed incomplete information, and about 250 had not responded at all. Exact numbers for each category will be known soon when the project closes. Those who do not complete the process successfully will lose dependent medical coverage.

"We would like to thank all the employees who participated in this process," says Jim Layman, medical benefits manager in Staff Benefits. "The cooperation of Purdue employees made this undertaking a resounding success."

Layman says he is particularly appreciative of faculty and staff who voluntarily removed ineligible dependents from coverage. By mid-June, 234 such dependents had been deleted from Purdue's medical plans.

"While we don't have individual financial data related to the dependents who were voluntarily removed from coverage, we anticipate a significant impact," said Layman. "The results of the dependent verification process will help Purdue control medical plan costs and moderate future employee premium increases."