Open Enrollment

With open enrollment under way, Payroll & Benefit Services (PBS) encourages employees to review materials, attend an open enrollment session, compare plans, ask questions and make educated decisions about their benefits choices.

A couple of common questions asked of benefits counselors every year during open enrollment:

What happens if I want the same elections as last year?
What happens if I take no action during open enrollment?

The answers change from year to year, and depend on your current elections, plans and plan changes.

As is explained in annual reminders, you must actively denote whether your dependent(s) is a qualified federal tax dependent for health coverage purposes every year. If your dependent(s) is a nonqualified federal tax dependent(s) for health coverage purposes, you will be subject to additional taxable income called imputed income.

PBS and legal and tax consultants are analyzing the federal health care reform bill and its provisions for raising the age of coverage for a child to 26. Look for more information on the open enrollment website.

Every year during open enrollment, you must re-enroll and actively elect your annual contributions for Health Care and Dependent Care flexible spending accounts. This is a federal requirement for such plans.

This year, all dependents – including your spouse, common law spouse or same gender domestic partner – must be verified to continue their coverage starting July 1.  Those verified during the dependent audit through Secova do not need to be re-verified.

If you are adding new dependents for coverage effective July 1, you must verify their eligibility with PBS during the open enrollment period and have required documents submitted by 5 p.m. May 21. The university will not guarantee dependent coverage if required documents are not received by the deadline.

The BluePreferred PPO will no longer be available for the 2010-11 plan year. If you are currently enrolled in the plan and take no action during open enrollment, you will be placed by default into the Lumenos plan at your current coverage level (employee only, employee + spouse, employee + children, family).

The state of Colorado has made many changes to its medical plans this year. If you are classified staff and are currently enrolled in a state of Colorado medical or dental plan, you must take action during open enrollment. If you do not, your medical or dental coverage will lapse July 1.

For more information about what happens if you take no action during open enrollment, go towww.cu.edu/pbs/openenrollment and click on the "Defaults" button at the upper right. To see a calendar of open enrollment sessions, what's new for the upcoming plan year, compare plans and learn more about your benefits options, check out the rest of the open enrollment website.

Did You Know... offers tips and information from CU's Employee Learning and Development office and others. To submit an item, e-mail Jay.Dedrick@cu.edu