Annual Open Enrollment Checklist

Open enrollment can be an extremely positive and rewarding experience for you and your employees, providing you plan for it well in advance. During this unprecedented time, it’s important to review and modify your benefit offerings to fully support your employees’ individual health and overall financial well-being. Check out the Webber Advisor Open Enrollment Checklist.

Pre-enrollment Period

Plan ahead:

Make a list of anything new and exciting that expands on your current benefit offerings and lead with these enhancements when conveying your benefits to employees and their families.
If you haven’t already done so, look to the value of automation through an online, employee self-serve enrollment platform and alleviate the administrative burden for HR while providing an exceptional user experience for your employees.
Solicit input from your employees through an annual survey and use these insights for validation related to what benefits matter most to your employees and guidance on both shorter- and longer-range planning.
Pro-actively manage any changes in benefit offerings with your carrier and other service provider partnerships in advance of open enrollment period to assure ample time for implementation and review.
Consider a voluntary offering to supplement your core benefits and provide your employees with greater individual choice and flexibility.

Spread the knowledge:

Use annual open enrollment as an opportunity to underscore your employee benefits value proposition and commitment to good health and financial well-being.
Use this opportunity to engage with both your employees and where applicable, their spouses.
Leverage all communication platforms that will be meaningful to your membership: benefit guides, video presentation, “live” virtual and/or in-person employee meetings…

Know your audience:

With a growing and increasingly diverse workforce, be prepared to expand on how you communicate with your employees.
Through your annual employee survey, understand their needs and introduce benefits that offer greater choice and flexibility.
Lend education on how best to access, draw upon and take advantage of all available health and wellness benefits.
Share frequently-asked-questions and answers with your employees and build on these themes to formulate year-round communication strategies.

Enrollment Period

Make sure employees have received all the following materials, including:

Open enrollment schedule
Statement of current coverage
Plan-specific changes and rates
Plan-specific summaries
Open enrollment guide and presentation
Deadline for open enrollment

Guide your employees through this period:

Provide employees with materials that can assist them in making informed benefit elections.
Send reminders leading up to the enrollment deadline.
Remain available through various mediums for employees to contact with questions and clarification.

Post-enrollment Period

Did you…

Check enrollment to confirm all data is captured correctly?
Submit your enrollment and eligibility files to all carriers and service providers?
Ensure that you follow any health care reform provisions that affect your plan and employees?
Follow up to confirm all eligibility files were loaded and where applicable new ID cards issued?

Throughout the Year

Partner with your carriers and service providers through year-round communications on key benefits themes and initiatives. Focus on education that encourages preventive care, wellness, and other available health advocacy programs while empowering your employees and their families through choice and health care consumerism.

For more information about open enrollment tips and our benefits consulting services, contact Webber Advisors today.

This Benefits Insights is not intended to be exhaustive, nor should any discussion or opinions be construed as professional advice.