Eligibility Period

The length of time you must be a member of a group before qualifying for coverage under the group plan.

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E.g. an organization whose health and dental plan has a 90-day (3-month) eligibility period would require 90 days of qualified employment before coverage could begin.

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This is often also referred to as a 'waiting period'.

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Eligibility periods are designed to help ensure newly onboarded employees are committed to the employer before they become eligible to receive insurance benefits.

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Eligibility periods also help to mitigate 'hit and run' scenarios where a newly onboarded employee submits a large volume of health/dental claims and then immediately quits after the claims have been paid.