Insurance Catastrophes at Dot-Coms?

DotComVictim asks: "So my girlfriend was working at Ariba until their massive (1/3) staffing cut. Turns out with all the turnover and chaos there, they never got around to filing her paperwork with the insurance companies. This is a blatant oversight, since she was working there for more than _six_ months. Now she is getting bills claiming she never had insurance. Can't this be construed as breach of contract, and open an employer up to a lawsuit? Anyone else have similar horror stories related to this, and what did you do to fix it?"

Comments

But...

[JediTrainer]

Why would this be an 'Ask Slashdot' question? Clearly, if you're wondering if this is a breach of contract, you should be speaking to a lawyer. Ask one (and pay) for an hour of their time and they'll be able to spell out for you what your options are.

This is especially true in your case because the laws will likely vary from country to country, and perhaps even from state to state. I highly doubt that any insight that I, a Canadian, might have for you would help if the person in question was working in Seattle, for example.

I wish her the best of luck, however. Certainly she deserves some explanation (and the bills to be paid), but you didn't mention if anyone tried to ask Ariba what the fsck was going on. The vast majority of Slashdot readers (all the IANAL ones, including myself) are probably not qualified to help you out. Take the wrong person's advise, and she may get screwed.

In any case, I had a similar happening with my company. When I changed divisions, my insurance was supposed to stay intact. Somehow my name got lost in a paperwork shuffle, and for a few months I was listed as not having insurance (me having found out after a trip to the dentist). A few phone calls to the insurance company and one trip to HR cleared up the mess.