Introduction
After a Benefit Plan has been set up and configured at the company level, it becomes available for enrollment through a couple of different methods. Enrollments can be entered manually on the Employee Profile, imported in bulk using the Benefit Enrollments Power Import, or offered through an Open Enrollment Session.
Individual Benefit Enrollment
Individual benefit enrollments consist of manually enrolling employees into the plan through their Employee Profile. To do this, navigate to the Benefits section of their Employee Profile and select Benefits Enrollment.
The Benefits Enrollment screen within the Employee Profile displays the employee's enrollment information for each type of plan they may be enrolled in. By default, the screen opens to the Health tab, where Users can view the employee's health plan enrollment status and manually enroll them in a plan if needed. Additional tabs for Dental and Vision benefits are available on the left side, allowing for similar actions for those benefit types.
For each tab, use the "+ New Enrollment" button at the top of the screen to manually enroll the employee in the benefit plan. This process requires the User to select the plan on the employee's behalf, establish the coverage level, and enter any relevant dependents. If the employee needs to be enrolled in both dental and vision plans, this process must be repeated for each.
The "Offers" tab allows Workforce Users to manually record offers of coverage for record-keeping and ACA reporting purposes. This does not provide coverage to the employee; it merely logs that an offer was made, typically when the employee has declined coverage. This step may also be required if the "Take Offers from Eligibility" setting in the ACA Rules is toggled off.
Benefit Enrollments Power Import
Benefit Enrollments can also be handled in bulk using the Benefit Enrollments Power Import. Navigate to the Power Tools section within the Actions tab and select the Benefit Enrollments Power Import.
There are two Import Types that may be used: Import new enrollments (with dependents), and Import new enrollments (no dependents). The template that includes dependents encompasses employees with and without dependents, whereas the template that does not include dependents should only be used if all employees being imported do not have dependents.
After selecting the Import Type, click "Next" to download the import template to begin filling out.
Click the blue "Download Template" button to populate a blank template that can be filled out accordingly. Then once the template has been filled out, it can be uploaded here on this screen. Upon importing the completed file, it will require confirmation of which year the enrollments are being added, and what benefit plans are being enrolled.
If the import template contains any Warnings or Errors, the system will flag them for correction. If no issues are found, the system will confirm the import as successful. For any questions or issues with using the Benefit Enrollment Power Import, please don't hesitate to reach out to Customer Support.
Open Enrollment
Initiating an Open Enrollment session, and who receives the invitation to enroll will depend on whether there are ACA Rules set up. The open enrollment invitation will depend on the Eligibility & Contributions of the benefit plan as well as the measurement settings within the ACA Rules that are set up. When a health plan is set up to strictly follow the ACA Rules, it will measure which employees are full-time, and the open enrollment invitation will be sent to only those employees.
If no ACA Rules are set up, filters such as Employment Type and Benefit Class can be applied instead, as indicated on the Employee Profile. As a result, the benefit plans available during the open enrollment session may vary based on the Eligibility & Contributions configuration of each benefit plan.
To initiate an enrollment session, navigate to the Benefits section within the Actions tabs and select Open Enrollment.
The dashboard displays any active enrollment sessions. If no sessions are currently open, an option to create a new enrollment session is available by clicking "Let's create a new session".
General
The first step in creating a new open enrollment session is the configuring the General section, where basic information about the session is entered.
The Session Name is displayed in the ESS Hub to the employee upon enrolling and is typically titled by the year the benefit is being offered in. The Coverage Effective Date represents the date that benefits will be active upon enrollment, it is not the date the benefit is being offered. Lastly on this screen, is the Contact Information for the appropriate point of contact that employees can reach out to if they have questions upon enrolling in the plan(s). Once all three fields have been completed, click "Continue" to move on to the Plans Section.
Plans
The Plans section defaults to include all active benefit plans set up at the company level. Specific plans can be removed by unchecking the box next to each plan. Please note that the Eligibility & Contributions configuration of each benefit plan will determine who the plan is offered to. Although all plans might be selected by default, employees may not have access to every option, depending on their eligibility.
Once all necessary plans are selected for the open enrollment session, click "Continue" to move on to the Greetings section.
Greetings
The final section when facilitating an open enrollment section is the Greetings section where a message can be configured for the recipient. This message will appear on the notification within the employee's ESS Hub prior to reviewing the plan options.
After constructing a greeting message, click "Save" to finalize the open enrollment settings. At this point, the open enrollment session has not yet started; only the settings have been established. Upon saving, the system will return to the Open Enrollment dashboard, where the blue "Activate enrollment" button must be clicked in order to initiate the session.
Before activating the open enrollment session, it is possible to view the eligible employees who will receive the invitation and the benefit plans that will be included. If the session needs to be edited or deleted, a three-dot menu along the top banner allows adjustments to the session's settings prior to initiating the open enrollment.
When activating the open enrollment session, the system will prompt for the Session End Date, which indicates the last date of open enrollment. After setting the date, click "Start" to officially begin the open enrollment session. Employees will then receive a notification to their registered email and on their ESS Hub Dashboard to enroll.
Open Enrollment - ESS Hub
Upon activating an open enrollment session, eligible employees will receive a notification to both their registered email on file and their ESS Hub Dashboard that will allow them to enroll in coverage.
From here, the system will prompt instructions for them to be able to review and select the plans they would like to enroll in.
Maintaining and Closing an Open Enrollment Session
After an Open Enrollment session has been initiated, the Open Enrollment dashboard will display the real-time enrollment progress of the eligible employees who received the invitation. There will be a headcount of who has Completed the enrollment, who is In Progress and who has Not Started it yet.
On this dashboard, it will display that amount of days left in open enrollment session so if there are still employees that have not enrolled, there is a button for "Send Reminder" that will help to notify employees again to enroll.
To view the progress of specific employees and which plans those employees enrolled in, select the "Track progress" button. The "View Details" button next to each employee will show all plans the employee has enrolled in, along with their respective coverage levels. To close out an open enrollment session, simply click the "Close" button on this dashboard.