Performing Options Processing

During the option processing phase of the Benefits Administration process, the system evaluates participant events for eligibility and applies event rules to determine the appropriate benefit plan options that are available to the participant as of the event's event date. The system determines the following things for the participant:

• Plan eligibility and available options.

• Option pricing and credits.

• Coverage and deduction dates (or terminations, if appropriate).

• Default options.

• Evidence-of-Insurability requirements, and coverage limits for Life and AD/D plans.

The results of the participant event evaluation depend entirely on the event and eligibility rules that you set up for the event classifications, benefit plan types, and benefit plan options involved.

Processing errors generally indicate that a problem exists with the design of the eligibility rules or event rules involved. They could also indicate that a problem exists with the HR information of the participant associated with the event. If errors occur, you need to evaluate the error to determine what (if anything) needs to be fixed. After you correct errors that result from program, rate, or rule design issues, you need to reprocess the events.

One of the most common classes of errors is an unexpected eligibility status. This is discussed in the following section.

When an event reaches a process status of PR (prepared), you may want to create enrollment statements for the participant.