Dates & Eligibility
This is your once-a-year chance to enroll in or make changes to your employer-sponsored health plan:
- You must elect or decline benefits (Open Enrollment)
- You may add or drop dependents
- You may set contributions to tax-advantaged accounts
You cannot make changes outside of open enrollment unless you have a qualifying life event (QLE).
Eligibility Rules
Any active, regular, full-time employee working a minimum of 30 hours per week is eligible for all benefits. Benefits are effective on your date of hire.
Others eligible for benefits include:
- Your legal spouse or domestic partner
- Your unmarried dependent children up until age 26 (including legally adopted and stepchildren)
- Dependent child who reaches the limiting age and is incapable of self-support because of a mental or physical disability.
Qualifying Life Events
A change in circumstance—like starting a new job, getting married or divorced, having or adopting a baby, or losing health insurance coverage—makes you eligible for a special enrollment period (outside of open enrollment).
Experiencing a QLE is the exception to the once-a-year rule about making health and benefits changes. You have up to 30 days after the qualifying life event to submit a QLE request to HR.
The insurance carrier will require:
- Supporting documentation
- The date the change occurred