(USF) Setting Up Multiple, Concurrent Open Seasons

In the federal government, open seasons for various plan types are usually scheduled independently of each other, and their solicitation periods often overlap. In other words, a FEGLI (federal employees group life insurance code) open season may begin after a FEHB (federal employee health benefits) open season solicitation period has started.

In Benefits Administration for U.S. Federal Government, the ability to successfully run multiple, concurrent open enrollment processes depends upon two fields: Event Class and Event Rules ID.

To set up multiple, concurrent open seasons:

  1. Define open enrollment event classes for each open season scheduled for your employees on the Event Class Table page.

  2. Define open enrollment processes for each scheduled open season, and link to them the appropriate open season event classes.

    Use the Open Enrollment Definitions page.

  3. Define individual event rule IDs for each plan type available to your employees.

    Use the Event Rules page.

  4. With each event rule ID, associate the entire set of open enrollment event classes that you defined in step 1, by using the Date Rules page.

  5. For each event rule ID, use Ignore Plan and Default Method functionality to disable Benefits Administration processing for all event classes linked to open seasons for plan types other than the one linked to the event rule ID.

    For example, if an event rule ID is associated with the FEHB plan type, select Ignore Plan for all event classes not associated with FEHB open season events.

    Use the proper default method to ensure that your employees are not automatically moved in and out of plans that are not part of the open season. The suggested default method is Assign Current Coverage Else None.

  6. Once you've finished defining your event rule IDs, link them to their corresponding plan types by using the Benefit Program page.

    Place FEHB event rule IDs with FEHB plan types, TSP (Thrift Savings Plans) event rule IDs with TSP plan types, and so on.

  7. Run open enrollment processes as planned for your various open season events.

    If you set up the system correctly, open enrollment for a FEGLI open season processes only plan types linked to the FEGLI event rule ID, open enrollment for a TSP open season processes only plan types linked to a TSP event rule ID, and so on. Your open enrollment processes can run concurrently as long as each process is associated with a different plan type or set of plan types.