Open Enrollment

[Guest CWilson]

We currently have open enrollments for our benefits at different times during the year. For instance, Health is in February, Life in Novemeber, etc... I would like to propose one annual open enrollment for all benefits and would like to know how many people out there have just one once a year, and why they chose to do it that way. Thanks so much!!!

[Joe Priselac]

My experience is that most of my clients have one open enrollment for all non pension benefits per year. Most of my clients have Cafeteria style benefit plan designs which by their nature require a once a year open enrollment. Putting aside the regulatory requirements, I would think it would be easier to take care of the whole "pie" all at once rather than trying to chase employees repeatedly during the course of the year. I find it is hard enough to get employees in the benefits frame of mind once a year. Why subject yourself to more frustration than is necessary?

[Guest htuttle]

Boy do you have a tough job!! We just moved to pull all of our plans to one date as well. It's so much easier to communicate this to our EE's. And certainly makes our job easier!! I would highly recommend doing just that!

[Sheila K]

I agree with Joe. We do all of our non-pension enrollments once a year. Our dental, medical, vision, alternative health care and flexible spending (cafeteria) then all coincide. It's a crazy time of the year, but we only have to review our employee benefit file once per year (barring the inevitable change of status!!!)

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Good Luck!!!

Sheila K 8^)

[JWK]

I think most employers try to have one open enrollment for all welfare benefits. An exception I have seen is for nonprofit organizations--they frequently operate on a June 30 fiscal year, so they'll operate insured plans on a July 1 to June 30 plan year. However, they operate flexible spending accounts on a calendar year because it seems to be easier for participants, especially on a dependent care reimbursement plan. In that limited situation, I've seen different enrollment periods.

Transitioning to a single enrollment period can be tricky because it requires working with short plan years and coordinating with insurers. But once you get there, I think you'll be glad you did.

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[Guest kclark]

JWK;

I administer plans for a non-profit organization and we have our H&W plans on a calendar year basis with our fiscal year being the 7/1 - 6/30 date. While it is convenient for the H&W plans it does make it complicated and a little more cumbersome when doing the benefits budget for fiscal year! We also have only ONE annual enrollment, I can't imagine subjecting yourself to more than one of these!!