How Participation Processing Evaluates Collapsing Rules and Timeliness Rules

If you configured life events with a timeliness rule, participation evaluation processing evaluates the timeliness rule before the collapsing rule. This topic uses a sample configuration of a collapsing rule and a timeliness rule to explain how the participation evaluation process evaluates such events.

Collapsing Rule Events and Timeliness Evaluation Rule Event

You configured the following:

• Collapsing rule that collapses the Transfer and Location Change events to a resultant Location Change event if they occur within five days apart. You configured the occurred date of the resultant event to the date of the earliest life event

• Timeliness evaluation rule for the Marriage event. You want to set the event status to Manual if it occurs outside 90 days from the process run date

The following table uses different scenarios to show how participation evaluation processing evaluates life events.

Scenario	Events
Life event that was configured with a timeliness rule occurs before the collapsing rule life event combination	A benefits administrator enters a Marriage event on May 1, 2015. The life event originally occurred on January 1, 2015. The Transfer event occurs on January 10, 2015. The Location Change event occurs on January 12, 2015. The participation evaluation process runs on May 5, 2015. The process does not evaluate the Marriage event or collapse any events. This is because: The Marriage event has occurred before the Transfer and Location Change events. The process doesn't evaluate other events that occur later than the Marriage event until you decide what action to take for that event.
Life event that was configured with a timeliness rule occurs after the collapsing rule life event combination	The Transfer event occurs on January 1, 2015. The Location Change event occurs on January 3, 2015. A benefits administrator enters a Marriage event on May 1, 2015. The life event originally occurred on January 10, 2015. The participation evaluation process runs on May 5, 2015. The process: Sets the status of the Marriage event to Manual according to the timeliness rule. Voids the Transfer event according to the collapsing rule. Processes the Location Change event.