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What should I know for Open Enrollment?

What should I know for Open Enrollment?

On November 8, 2020, Posted by , In Benefits,Open enrollment, With Comments Off on What should I know for Open Enrollment?

Open Enrollment November 2020: Planning for 2021

We’re half way through the Open Enrollment period at many companies. Open Enrollment is the time in which you get to make benefit elections for the following fiscal year.

(For many companies, the fiscal year is the same as the calendar year. But if you work for a tax business in the US, your fiscal year probably revolves around April 15th. Where as if you work for a school district, your fiscal year start/end is probably related to summer.)

You may be wondering, what do I need to know about Open Enrollment?

First, I recommend you go back and review the articles I posted last year, you can find them all, plus any new ones, here: https://woodfinancialservicesmn.com/tag/open-enrollment/

Second, consider what about your situation may have changed. 2020 was a “great” one for triggering change. You may have found that you didn’t have any opportunity to use your Health Care Flexible Spending Account (HCFSA); if you were like me, stuck at home, we didn’t get eye exams, I didn’t get mileage on my shoes to trigger the need for new orthotics, we had very minimal expenses that would have been eligible for reimbursement from a HCFSA. With the onset of the pandemic in March in the US, many companies moved to have their insurance plan cover COVID-19 related costs be covered 100%; your company may now be back-tracking on that for 2021 as it’s become obvious the pandemic is dragging on, and you’d want to read carefully enough to know if that’s the case for you. Maybe you know your spouse is being laid off, and so you want to set it up that this year you will be the one to carry the medical insurance. Maybe you’ve discovered your risk tolerance isn’t what you’d thought it was, and you want to move from a high deductible plan to an 80/20% plan with a lower total out of pocket maximum.

Third, decide if you’re going to sell any PTO in 2021. Many of us have been working days, nights, and weekends, with no opportunity for vacation in 2020. If that’s been you, make sure you check your PTO balance. While I’m a big fan of taking the vacation time for your own mental and physical health, 2020 hasn’t been a year when that’s been possible for many. Rather than simply losing that value, figure out what you’ll have to sell yet in 2020 at the reduced payout amount to keep from going over cap yet this year. Then determine what amount is reasonable to sell in 2021, and pre-elect that many hours. Your employer likely has rules about how much you may pre-elect to sell, make sure you plan around those. Also, if your employer has a typical time of year for raises to go into effect, pro tip is to wait to sell those hours (if possible, you may find you have to sell at least some hours right away in January just to keep from going over cap) until after the raise has hit 🙂

Fourth, get your paperwork submitted on time.

I’ve had two research studies that have been dinking around for years, announce they had mid-November NIH progress reports due. One of those gave us less than a week’s notice, their data had been put into a horribly designed data collection tool by a couple of hounded study coordinators working almost 24/7 for the past 4 days, and they couldn’t even coherently tell us what they needed to answer for this progress report, without even a please or a thank you for their demand to bend over backwards, working nights and weekend, for them. Then of course I got hit with a loose ear crystal, and went down for the count in their less than 1 week window. I don’t work in emergency medicine, I don’t work in a coverage area, and there should be no such thing as a statistical emergency.

Me, November, 2020

Don’t let this be you. Know what you need to do, and do it. Don’t wait until the last hour, or even the last day. Don’t wait until you find out you’re sick, or your spouse’s work schedule has been adjusted, or whatever other monkey wrenches Demon Murphy can throw in the works. As soon as you know what you need to do, do it.

If you don’t take action, certain assumptions will be made for you. And those likely aren’t the assumptions you want made. One example of what might happen if you do nothing: whether or not you elected a HCFSA and DCFSA in 2020, the assumption will be that you don’t want them for 2021. Every employer has their own specifications and default assumptions, it’s always better to log in proactively and set/check everything.

Here’s to 2021!

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