Helpful tips for open enrollment

With open enrollment season upon us, the Enrollment team has some suggestions and tips to help you have a successful open enrollment.

• Promote the open enrollment webpage, peba.sc.gov/oe, to your employees. You can find helpful resources for employers at peba.sc.gov/oe-employers.
• The preferred way for employees to make open enrollment changes is through MyBenefits. Using MyBenefits and EBS significantly reduces the risk of errors, including electing changes that aren’t allowed, that could result in rejections. Making changes online also helps expedite and streamline the open enrollment process.
• If you must use a Notice of Election (NOE), only indicate demographic data and coverage that the employee wishes to change for 2023. Marking other coverage selections that the subscriber does not wish to change can result in unintentional changes or unnecessary rejections.
• Ensure NOEs are unaltered and legible, or PEBA may request corrected NOEs. The form must include live signatures from both the employee and benefits administrator.
• Employees must provide legible dependent documentation and Social Security numbers if adding dependents to coverage. Remember that two PEBA subscribers cannot cover the same dependent on the same coverage.
• If your employee elects to decrease his Optional Life insurance coverage and he also has Dependent Life-Spouse coverage, the spouse coverage may need to be reduced to remain within the coverage limit guidelines (50% of Optional Life).
• If your employee wants to increase his Optional Life coverage more than the $50,000 guaranteed issue allows, or he is enrolling in or increasing Dependent Life-Spouse, have the employee complete his other open enrollment changes in MyBenefits. He can include the increased Optional Life coverage up to $50,000 in his MyBenefits changes. Then, follow the online Statement of Health process by completing a Notice of Election (NOE) for the amounts that require medical evidence. The NOE must be signed by October 31. Once you receive approval from MetLife, submit the NOE and copy of the approval to PEBA for processing.
• Employees should designate a beneficiary for Basic Life or Optional Life if enrolling for the first time. If a beneficiary is not named, it will default to the Estate of the employee.
• Employees must re-enroll in flexible spending accounts (MSAs, Limited-use MSAs and DCSAs) during open enrollment for the following year.
• Health Savings Account (HSA) participants can enroll in an HSA or change/stop HSA contributions during open enrollment or anytime throughout the year. Changes are effective the first of the month following the change.

Transferring employees during open enrollment

For more details, see Page 61 of the Benefits Administrator Manual.

• Transferring an employee? Have the employee complete his open enrollment changes on a Notice of Election (NOE) and mail it to PEBA by October 31, 2022, then complete the transfer. The employee should notify his new employer of his prior open enrollment changes and submit a completed NOE with his new employer after they complete his initial enrollment. The new employer should indicate “Transfer – OE” at the top of the NOE.
• Receiving a transferring employee? As the new employer, we encourage you to ask the employee if he made any open enrollment changes with his prior group. The open enrollment change must match what the employee requested with his prior employer (NOE on file with PEBA). Discrepancies between groups will cause a rejection.

News hires from October to December

The new hire should complete his new hire enrollment through MyBenefits. Keep in mind that a flexible spending account election will be effective only through December 31, 2022, and the total contributions should be remitted to ASIFlex across the remaining pay periods in 2022. If the employee wishes to elect a flexible spending account for 2023, he must submit a Notice of Election (NOE) indicating “New hire – OE” with an effective date of January 1, 2023.

Example: An employee enrolls in an MSA for $1,000 as a new hire effective November 1, 2022. He must contribute the full amount elected before the end of the year. This means he must contribute $1,000 over two months, or he should consider a reduced election amount for November and December only. His 2022 MSA coverage ends December 31, 2022. The employee must re-enroll in an MSA for 2023.

Special eligibility situations between October and December

Employees often complete their open enrollment elections and then experience a special eligibility situation between October and December. In this scenario, the employee must complete a Notice of Election (NOE) for the special eligibility situation, as well as an open enrollment NOE marked “Revised” and submit both to PEBA for processing.

Example: An employee enrolls in employee/child health coverage for 2023 during open enrollment. In November, his spouse loses health coverage, so the employee experiences a special eligibility situation. The employee must complete an NOE to add the spouse to health coverage effective the date of the loss of coverage. The employee must also submit a revised open enrollment NOE to elect full family coverage for 2023 or to confirm employee/child health coverage only for 2023.