Prepare Program and Plan Configuration for Open Enrollment

Ensure that you have completed the tasks mentioned in this topic when you prepare program and plan configurations for open enrollment.

Verify periods for payroll calendars and year periods for programs and plans.
Check derived factors and eligibility profiles.
Inactivate existing plans and options that are ending.
Create options and plans and add to existing plans and programs.
Check default enrollment rules.
Check unrestricted processing enablement.

Verify Periods for Payroll Calendars and Year Periods for Programs and Plans

Check with the payroll administrator:

That the payroll periods for your benefits plans extend through the entire new plan year
Whether the upcoming plan year has standard 52 or 26 pay periods or nonstandard 53 or 27 pay periods, respectively, if using biweekly or weekly period types

In the Setup and Maintenance work area, Verify that a year period exists for the new plan year. Create year periods as required using the Manage Year Periods task. In the Plan Configuration work area:

Verify that all active programs and plans include the correct year periods using the Basic Details pages.

If your business calculates communicated rates using pay periods, check that the correct communicated rate frequency is selected based on the pay periods in the upcoming plan year.

Communicated Rate Frequency	Description
Per pay period	Uses the number of pay end dates derived from the payroll definition. Example: A weekly payroll might result in 53 end dates in the calendar year.
Estimated per pay period	Uses the standard number of periods corresponding to the period type value selected in the payroll definition, regardless of the number of pay end dates in the calendar year. Example: Communicated rate calculations use the fixed number of 52 weekly periods, even for years with the nonstandard 53 weekly periods.
Per pay period with element frequency rules	Uses the frequency rules of the payroll element associated with the standard rate to determine the number of deductions in the calendar year. Example: One of your benefit deductions occurs only on the first biweekly payroll in each month. If you use this communicated rate frequency, select Per-pay-period amount as the value passed to payroll.

Communicated Rate Frequency

Description

Per pay period

Uses the number of pay end dates derived from the payroll definition.

Example: A weekly payroll might result in 53 end dates in the calendar year.

Estimated per pay period

Uses the standard number of periods corresponding to the period type value selected in the payroll definition, regardless of the number of pay end dates in the calendar year.

Example: Communicated rate calculations use the fixed number of 52 weekly periods, even for years with the nonstandard 53 weekly periods.

Per pay period with element frequency rules

Uses the frequency rules of the payroll element associated with the standard rate to determine the number of deductions in the calendar year.

Example: One of your benefit deductions occurs only on the first biweekly payroll in each month.

If you use this communicated rate frequency, select Per-pay-period amount as the value passed to payroll.

Check Derived Factors and Eligibility Profiles

Check and edit existing eligibility configuration and add missing eligibility configuration as required. Use the tasks under Manage Eligibility in the Tasks panel drawer of the Plan Configuration work area.

Examples:

You created benefit offerings for spousal and child life that require new age derived factors.
You have new requirements that require you to edit length of service derived factors.
You evaluate eligibility profiles associated with benefits objects requiring many manual participation overrides to determine how to better include and exclude participants.

Adjusting the eligibility profiles based on your analysis reduces or ends the manual overrides.
Your service areas are changing, so you must modify the existing postal codes and service areas accordingly.

Inactivate Existing Plans and Options That Are Ending

Inactivate plans or options that you no longer offer in the new plan year to stop existing participant enrollments and prevent new enrollments. Before you inactivate a plan, ensure that you disenroll all participants from the plan.

To inactivate a plan, do these steps in the Plan Configuration work area:

Search for the programs or plans that contain the plans or options that are ending.

Tip: Use the effective start date of the upcoming plan year as your effective as-of date.
On the edit Basic Details page, select the plan or option that you want to end.
Update the plan or option, setting the status to Inactive and saving your change.

Check that the effective start date for when the plan or option becomes inactive changed to the session effective date at the top of the page, for example, January 1, 2016.
On the Enrollment page, select the plan or option that you want to end.
Update the Enrollment section on the General tab, setting the enrollment rule to Current - lose only; new - nothing and saving your change.

Check that the updated plan or option:
- Enrollment field contains a check mark
- Effective start date changed to the session effective date for the page, such as January 1, 2016

Processing the open event with these settings disenrolls all existing plan or option participants on the new effective start date and no new participants can enroll in it.

Create Options and Plans and Add To Existing Plans and Programs

Create the option or plan for the upcoming plan year in the Plan Configuration work area.

Object	Settings
Options and plans	Set the session effective date at the top of the create page to the first day of a plan year at least a few years earlier, for example, January 1, 2000. Set the option or plan status to Pending.
Plans	Add year periods that include the current plan year and the upcoming plan year. Example: If the upcoming plan year starts January 1, 2016, then, at minimum, add year periods from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015 and January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016.

Add the new objects to the relevant plans and programs.

Parent Object	Steps for Adding the New Option or Plan
Plan to which you want to add the new option Program to which you want to add the new plan	Set the session effective date at the top of the Basic Details page to the first day of the current plan year, for example, January 1, 2015. Add the new option or plan, setting the status to Pending and click Save. The effective start date should be the first day of the current plan year. Set the session effective date at the top of the edit program page to the first day of the upcoming plan year, for example, January 1, 2016. Update the option or plan status to Active for the newly added option or plan and click Save. The newly added option or plan status should have changed from Pending to Active. The effective start date should now be the first day of the upcoming plan year.
Plan not in program to which you want to add the new option	Set the session effective date using the current plan year, set the status, and add year periods, just as you do when creating plans. Follow steps 3 and 4 in the preceding row to set a new session effective date using the upcoming plan year and update the plan status to Active.

Parent Object

Steps for Adding the New Option or Plan

Plan to which you want to add the new option
Program to which you want to add the new plan

Set the session effective date at the top of the Basic Details page to the first day of the current plan year, for example, January 1, 2015.
Add the new option or plan, setting the status to Pending and click Save.

The effective start date should be the first day of the current plan year.
Set the session effective date at the top of the edit program page to the first day of the upcoming plan year, for example, January 1, 2016.
Update the option or plan status to Active for the newly added option or plan and click Save.
- The newly added option or plan status should have changed from Pending to Active.
- The effective start date should now be the first day of the upcoming plan year.

Plan not in program to which you want to add the new option

Set the session effective date using the current plan year, set the status, and add year periods, just as you do when creating plans.
Follow steps 3 and 4 in the preceding row to set a new session effective date using the upcoming plan year and update the plan status to Active.

Check Default Enrollment Setup

For all active programs, plans, and options, check that the selected enrollment methods and default enrollment rules are still valid for your latest program and plan designs.

Check on the General and Life Event tabs of the edit program or plan Enrollment pages.

Where the default enrollment rule is New - default; current - same enrollment and rates, the processing is as follows:

Participants who are new to an electable benefits object receive the default plan or option.
Currently enrolled participants who make no explicit election changes retain their same enrollment.

Enrollment processing recomputes rates based on the plan configuration. If you entered the coverage or rate at the time of enrollment, then participants retain the current benefit and rate amount by default.

Tip: Use the Automatic enrollment method when you don't want workers to change the default elections that you set.

Check Unrestricted Processing Enablement

To allow enrollment in unrestricted plans during open enrollment, you must disable the regular unrestricted processing. Otherwise, the regular unrestricted processing backs out the unrestricted open enrollments.

Use the Manage Self-Service Configuration task in the Plan Configuration work area to set unrestricted processing enablement to Not during open enrollment.

Note: Unrestricted programs and plans run on entirely different business relationships than the regular, life event driven programs and plans. This means that you can process an unrestricted life event on the same day that you process a regular life event.