Ithaca College

This notice provides information about Ithaca College’s compliance with the Health Care Reform legislation and outlines what you need to do to ensure timely coverage for your adult children as well as any other dependents you may want to add to your coverage during re-enrollment.

The "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (PPACA) requires plans to allow young adults up to age 26 to be covered through a parent’s group health insurance policy. Please note this mandate pertains to the medical plan only.

A young adult whose coverage ended, or who was denied coverage (or was not eligible for coverage), because the availability of dependent coverage of children ended before attainment of age 26 are eligible to enroll in the College’s group health plan beginning January 1, 2011. The young adult does not need to live with you, be financially dependent upon you, or be a student for the purpose of being covered under the medical plan. The spouse/domestic partner or children of the young adult are not eligible to be covered under the College’s health plan.

It is important to understand that dependent children who are under the age of 19 or who are between the ages of 19 and 25 and are full-time students are eligible to be covered under any of your Individual Choice benefits. The change to the definition of an eligible child as mandated by the PPACA only applies to the medical plan.

If you wish to cover your adult child(ren) under one of IC’s medical plans, you must request enrollment online during the annual re-enrollment period which will take place between November 8th and 19th, 2010. Coverage will be effective on January 1, 2011.

In preparation for re-enrollment, a Dependent/Contact Update Form must be completed for any dependent or adult child that you wish to add to IC’s medical plan who is not currently covered under the plan or whose eligibility has not already been verified through the dependent eligibility verification process that was recently conducted. Documentation to verify dependent eligibility must be attached to the completed form. A list of acceptable documentation can be found on the reverse side of the Dependent/Contact Update Form.

Similarly, a Dependent/Contact Update Form must be completed in preparation for re-enrollment to provide verification of full-time student status for any dependent between the ages of 19 and 25 in order to provide dental, dependent life, or accident insurance coverage. If you have already submitted this information for AY 2010-11, you do not need to resubmit the information.

A Dependent/Contact Update Form can be found online at https://www.ithaca.edu/hr/docs/hrforms/update_dep_cont_2010/ or picked up in the Office of Human Resources located on the garden level of the PRW Center. You must submit completed forms along with the appropriate documentation attached to the Employee Benefits & Work/Life department as soon as possible but no later than November 1st  in order to ensure that you will be able to successfully enroll/re-enroll your eligible dependents beginning November 8th.

You will be receiving more information regarding the re-enrollment process in the coming weeks. Any questions about the information outlined above should be directed to the Employee Benefits & Work/Life department at 607-274-8000 or via e-mail at www.benefits@ithaca.edu.