The dependents nobody rechecked
Eight of the 391 dependents on file no longer qualify: children who aged out, an ex-spouse never removed. At an average premium of 214.00 they cost 1,712.00 a month until removal, and carriers rarely refund the past. The fix is a cycle, not a cleanup.
◆ The file, verified391 dependents, three buckets.
| Dependents on file | Count |
|---|---|
| Verified with evidence | 362 |
| Verification pending | 21 |
| Ineligible, found by the audit | 8 |
| Dependents on file | 391 |
Eight ineligible dependents in a file this size is a typical, unremarkable finding: aged-out children still enrolled, ex-spouses never removed. Nobody defrauded anyone; the file just drifted, the way every unchecked file does. Sample values are illustrative, never client data.
◆ What the eight costthe leak, priced.
| The ineligible eight | Amount |
|---|---|
| Average dependent premium, monthly | 214.00 |
| Monthly leak, 8 dependents | 1,712.00 |
| Annualized | 20,544.00 |
The 1,712.00 leaves every month until each removal processes, and it compounds backward too: carriers rarely refund past premiums for dependents who were never eligible. The audit pays for itself in the first cycle, which is why the mistake is running it once and declaring victory.
◆ The owned answerthe dependent file as auditable data.
Dependents, evidence status, and verification dates are rows joined to enrollments, so the audit is a recurring partition, not a project. Ineligibles route to removal with their date, and the leak trend is a chart that should slope to zero. The facts are drawn on the benefits star.
- dependent audit
- Evidence-based verification of everyone covered as a dependent.
- ineligible dependent
- A covered person who no longer qualifies: aged out, divorced.
- the leak
- Monthly premiums for ineligible dependents; rarely refunded.
- verification cycle
- The recurring cadence that keeps the file from drifting.
- removal routing
- The found ineligibles sent to processing with dates.