If an employee didn’t enroll his dependents when he enrolled, when can his dependents be added to the group coverage?
Dependents can be added to the employee’s coverage at the time of a “qualifying event” defined in the policy. Those events include involuntary loss of other coverage, return to school (for group plans that have a full-time student requirement), marriage, birth, or adoption. For dependents seeking enrollment without a qualifying event, the policy’s late enrollee provisions apply. The dependent is be subject to a six-month wait—beginning the first day of the month after we receive the enrollment application—before coverage can begin.
