Taxpayers funded health care for 5,687 ineligible dependents ineligible
Associated Press
COLUMBUS
A state review discovered that Ohio was paying health care costs for 5,687 dependents of state employees who didn’t qualify for coverage, and now officials are considering whether to force employees to repay taxpayer money.
Dropping coverage for ineligible dependents will save about $10 million annually. The largest cut came in college-age students. About one-third no longer qualify for their parents’ coverage.
Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration decided last spring to audit dependent eligibility. It paid $400,000 to Secova, a human-resources and benefits firm in Newport Beach, Calif., to gather and analyze documents from state employees to verify dependent eligibility.
About 50,000 employees and 79,000 dependents are covered by the state. Dependents include spouses, children younger than 18 and college students.
Under the review, employees were required to submit birth and marriage certificates, the signature page of their federal tax return or other records.
Initially, 6,372 dependents were dropped, but 685 were reinstated after providing documentation, and 124 appeals are pending.
The savings could reach $14 million a year, but state officials are using the more conservative estimate of $10 million.
Sally Meckling, spokeswoman for the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the largest state union, said the dependent cuts were not a surprise and the union supported the move.
“We were at the table. ... We knew what was going on at every step of the way.”
Meckling said the union hasn’t received complaints from state workers about the cuts.
Secova recommends that follow-up audits be done as often as every six months, but state officials say it’s more likely the next one will be in three to five years.
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