The woes of the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund keep expanding.

Last week was the letter describing the ballooning backlog that could prevent timely verification of health insurance by the beginning of 2010.

Now comes a fat packet of papers for a newly required “Dependent Eligibility Verification”.

In what is described as a cost-saving measure, EUTF has contracted with two companies to verify eligible dependents, and anyone who doesn’t submit the required paperwork by December 31 will have their dependents’ coverage cancelled retroactive to October 16.

This packet claims other systems have saved an average of 9-13% by completing this kind of rigorous verification.

I’m personally involved since this un-or-under employed blogger is covered by the health insurance that Meda qualifies for as an employee of the University of Hawaii.

So getting this right is important.

This is the second round of similar paperwork. I looked through the first packet and set it aside because it did not appear to apply to spouses, only to other types of dependents.

This time around, though, public employees are informed that they must provide proof for their eligible spouse, either by submitting a 2008 tax return, or via a marriage certificate PLUS proof of joint property ownership/lease or a utility bill listing the employee and spouse.

Then come the instructions.

Required documents for verification

Page 1 and signature page of employee-beneficiary’s 2008 Federal Income Tax Return as filed with the IRS, listing the spouse as dependent….

Whoa, Big Guy. Our 1040 won’t list me as dependent. The tax form doesn’t work that way for couples filing jointly. We’re just shown as a married couple filing jointly.

Did anybody over at EUTF proofread these instructions?

First I followed instructions to access the secured Dependent Eligibility Verification website.

Oops. The access screen asked for “employee number”. Employee number? What’s that? I enter Meda’s social security number. Rejected. I try formatting it, xxx-xx-xxxx. Wrong again. No “special characters” allowed.

I suppose there may be some fine print number on the payroll receipt she receives twice a month, but it’s not a number anyone has ever referred to. So forget the online system.

Next stop–the telephone hotline number provided. Luckily, there wasn’t a long wait. I explained the “problem” and was told to just disregard the written instructions. A joint return is sufficient, according to the hotline staffer. Then why didn’t these extensive and very expensive instructions simply say that?

It leaves me very anxious that I’ll be stripped of insurance at some future date because, in fact, the tax return does not list me as a dependent. And didn’t you read the instructions, Mr. Lind? Weren’t they clear? When that happens, will I be able to cite this blog post as evidence of the advice I was given by the hotline staff?

Or do I need to track down our 40-year old marriage certificate? Won’t that be fun? And it would be the very first time in four decades that anyone has asked to see a copy.

And for us old married folks, the paperwork requirement is minimal. I pity folks with kids, especially adopted children, stepchildren, foster children, college students, etc. They’ll have to jump through a lot more hoops to get the required paperwork to prove that those children are eligible for insurance coverage. And kids born outside the country? How long do you think the State Department will take to certify a foreign birth, if the original paperwork has been lost?

You just know this is not going to turn out well for a lot of public employees whose personal lives are more complicated than my own.

Auwe!