A waiting period is the amount of time that an employee must be employed with the company before they are eligible to join the Small Business policy. When establishing a new Small Business policy, an employer must choose from several options available for a preferred waiting period for new hires. The waiting period options available may vary from one insurance company to another and can range from the first of the following month to 12 months. The waiting period does not usually apply to employees that are employed by the company when the group plan is initially established, but the employer may require this waiting period of recent hires that have not been with the company for the length of the selected waiting period. Most Small Business policies have a first of the month effective date for the addition on any new eligible employee. If an employer has a 1 month waiting period, this means that a new hire may join the group plan on the first day of the month following the date that they have been with the company for 1 month. For eample, if a new employee starts working for a company on January 15th, and that company has a 1 month waiting period, the new employee will be eligible to join the group health plan in March 1st. Even an employer that wishes to have no waiting period will still not be able to add new employees until the first day of the month following the date of hire. Any waiting period that is chosen by the employer at the time of setting up the group health plan must apply to all new employees. To verify that the waiting period has been met, the insurance company may request payroll records that verify the new employee has been with the company for the specified waiting period. This prevents the employer from making special arrangements with a new employee that is adamant about waiving the waiting period and obtaining immediate coverage. An employer may modify their selected waiting period, but only during annual open enrollment.