Employees' dependents drive up to 70 percent of a company's health care costs.

Employees' dependents drive up to 70 percent of a company's health care costs, but in extreme cases, as many as 15 percent of dependents may actually be ineligible for coverage because of age, marital status, or failure to qualify as a legal dependent. Carrying all those extra people can add thousands—if not millions—to your annual benefit costs. Verifying dependent eligibility, however, can be time-consuming and complicated for your HR staff.

Hewitt's Dependent Audit Services can verify the eligibility of your employees' dependents, eliminating that potentially tedious task from your HR staff's responsibilities. Our knowledgeable and experienced benefit professionals ensure a smooth verification process and measurable results. Working with Hewitt enables you to manage eligibility issues in a more objective environment, which helps mitigate potential participant concerns about sharing sensitive, personal information with their employer.

With Hewitt's Dependent Audit Services, you can:

• Reduce future dependent health care costs
• Improve plan participant understanding of what's driving health care costs
• Reduce compliance risk under Sarbanes-Oxley, ERISA, and DOL guidelines

Our Dependent Audit Services can be customized with options such as one-time or periodic verification, full population or random sample of plan participants, or an initial amnesty period that allows employees to voluntarily drop ineligible dependents. 

A wide variety of companies have used Hewitt's Dependent Audit Services to verify eligibility among active, inactive, retiree, and COBRA populations.  With an average reduction in the number of eligible dependents  of 4 to 7 percent, the resulting cost savings are substantial.
To learn more about Hewitt's Dependent Audit Services and how your company can benefit, contact your local Hewitt consultant or e-mail peoplesolutions@hewitt.com.