I have an employee whose spouse's child has just come into this country. I don't believe that this situation applies to the Special Enrollment regs. Would the dependent be able to come onto the plan as a special enrollee or would they have to wait until open enrollment?

Did the child come to live with the employee? Couldn't it be seen as an event that caused a change in the number of dependents?

I don't think that the number of dependents would have anything to do with Special Enrollment provisions in a health plan; however, if the child came in to the U.S. from a country with socialized medicine like the U.K. or Australia, or had other coverage in another country that was lost because the child left the country then I could see that as a loss of other coverage which would fall under the Special Enrollmlent provisions of HIPAA.