Question
My husband and I own a small business (less than 10 employees) in Oklahoma and are in desperate need of health insurance for our son. We were told by an insurance agent that since our son has a blood disorder we can only get him insured through a group plan, insuring both my husband and I through work (CommuniyCare says they will allow my husband and I to be counted separately). She said that we could do a carve-out on just the 2 of us since we were owners, that we didn't have to offer it to everyone in our office. Is this illegal? Our accountant says it is illegal and that we are breaking HIPPA guidelines to offer insurance to the owners and not the employees. Please help.
Thank You,
Mistry Towry
Answer
Don't get your legal advice from your accountant. First of all, it's not illegal to only offer insurance to the owners and not to the other employees; the law permits insurance to be offered to only one class of employee and not another (full time employees get insurance but part time doesn't; management gets insurance but non-management doesn't, office vs. shop, exempt vs. non-exempt, etc.). As long as all members in the eligible class get the insurance offered to them, i'ts legal.
And secondly, if it were illegal, which it isn't, the violated law would be ERISA, not HIPAA.
Your accountant doesn't know what she's talking about.