Table of Contents

STEPS TO SETTING UP OPEN ENROLLMENT#

In order to use the Benefit Open Enrollment facility there are numerous set up requirements that must be fulfilled. There are many options available to allow for the various benefit requirements and to allow clients to tailor the screens and data to their liking.

Step 1: IBPT – Define Benefit Plan Types #

The following fields in IBPT are used for Open Enrollment purposes.
Plan Type
This field holds the defined plan type code that uniquely identify the plan type. The Plan Type will be displayed in the WEBOEE form so it should be reflective of the plans within the type.
Sequence
The Calculation Sequence field determines the order in which this plan type will be processed by payroll. This sequence is also used by the BSS module to determine the order the plan types are displayed to the employee in the election form (WEBOEE). If a sequence is not defined, the plan types will display in alphabetical order. Calculation_Sequence is a 5-digit numeric field provided but may be user altered.
Recipient Type
This field is used by the BSS module only. This can be used to define a recipient type if all of the plans linked to the plan type allow the same type of recipient to be enrolled. If an employee is only allowed to elect themselves in the plan, ‘Not Applicable’ should be used. If the plans allow for different participant types a recipient type can be defined at the coverage level. The type of recipient defined will filter the list of benefit recipients available to the employee for that plan during the election period. The filtration is done by comparing the recipient type lexicon values to the stored values of the relation lexicon in IECT. The system will check for a recipient type at the coverage first, if none are found it will then check the plan type to see if one has been defined at that level. If the system cannot locate a recipient type for either the coverage or plan type, all of the employee’s contacts defined in IECT will be listed for the employee to elect. The page Benefit Recipient Matrix for Open Enrollment shows which relation values fall under each of the recipient types.
Plan Type URL
A URL can be defined to provide the employees with a link in to external documentation that may provide additional information on each plan within the plan type, or to a carrier’s website. This will be displayed on the SS election form WEBOEE beneath the Election Intro ext.
Description
Ensure a description has been defined and is reflective of the plans within the plan type as this will be visible in WEBOEE. Basic HTML tags can be used to tailor the look of the text.
Election Intro Text
This field is used to include introductory text to the plans in the WEBOEE form. This can be used to provide additional instructions to employees. Basic HTML tags can be used to tailor the look of the text.

Step 2: IMLN- Maintain Lexicons#

A common requirement of benefit elections is that an employee is eligible to a set of plans that are offered from different carriers and are mutually exclusive of one another (the employee is only allowed to elect one plan from the set). The application is able to handle this requirement by grouping these plans into a “Plan Election Set”. A plan set code is used to group these plans together. The plan set code is user defined in a lexicon called X_PLAN_ELECTION_SET in IMLN. The plan set code should be reflective of the type of plans included in the set. The plan set code is then added to IBPN to each of the plans to be included in the set.

Before employees can submit their elections, they may be prompted for a decline reason for the elections they declined. This decline reason is based on the lexicon X_BE_DECLINE_REASON. This is a user defined lexicon which clients should populate with suitable decline reasons, unless the client will not be requiring decline reasons in which case the lexicon does not need to be updated.

Step 3: IMST – Define Client Site Information #

By default decline reasons are required; however, if it is a client’s policy not to require reasons for declines, the site preference BSS D REASON REQ must be defined in IMST with a value of N.

The site preference BSS_EVIDENCE_REQ may be defined with a value of Y to force an employee to provide Evidence/Documentation during the Open Enrollment before they can submit their elections. If this is defined with a Y a validation message will be displayed to the employee. If a value of N is provided, the employee will still be prompted to submit evidence however they will still able to submit their elections if no evidence is uploaded.

Step 4: IPPGU / IPPGC – Define US/CDN Pay Categories #

In order to determine which pay frequency detail record to use to calculate the EE and ER period/monthly/annual calculations, a new pay category is required with the pay category type ”Open Enrollment”. This category will not be used by any payroll calculations.

Step 5: IPPF – Define Processing Frequencies#

The new pay category must be added to all of the pay frequencies that are used by the benefit plans associated to the Events for Open Enrollment. In IPPF, the Times Per Year field for this category must be populated with the number of times per year that the benefit plan is to be processed by payroll. This number will be used in conjunction with the rate basis for the category in the EE and ER calculations.

Step 6: IBPN – Define Benefit Plans/Coverages#

There are certain fields in IBPN that should be defined to accommodate the Open Enrollment process. These fields are listed below:
Plan Details
Description
The description of the benefit plan should be descriptive of the plan as this will be displayed to the employees.
Plan Election Set
Specify a plan set code if the benefit plan is part of a Plan Election Set. The plans within the Plan Election Set must be part of the same plan type. Since Plan Election Sets are used when plans are mutually exclusive of one another, they can only be implemented if the client already restricts the employees to only enroll into one plan. If employees are currently enrolled in multiple plans that are to be included in the same plan election set, the enrollments for these plans must be first declined before the plans can be tied to a plan election set, otherwise there will be errors when the OE period is generated. This field is tied to the lexicon X_PLAN_ELECTION_SET.
Open Enroll Allowed
If the benefit plan is to be included in the Open Enrollment process then the Open Enroll Allowed field must be populated with either ‘Always Open’ or ‘OE Periods Only’. Always Open will ensure that the benefit plan is always open to employees to elect into. OE Periods Only ensures that the benefit plan is only open during the OE Period. If the benefit plan is never to be used by the Open Enrollment process then select ‘Never Open’. This field is tied to the lexicon X_BE_OE_ALLOWED.
Approval Required
Approval logic can be enabled at the plan level. Clients can choose No Approval Required, Approval Required (Approval is required for Open Enrollments with new elections, existing elections with changes and declined elections.), or Apr Req for Chgs Only (Approval is only required for changes made to elections). This field is tied to the lexicon X_BE_APPROVAL.
Display Sequence
A display sequence is used to determine the order the benefit plans are listed in the WEBOEE form in Self Service.
Grandfathered
This will indicate if the benefit plan has been ‘grandfathered’. This field is currently only supported in Open Enrollments, it is not currently respected in IBEL. For Open Enrollments, this will restrict new employees from being elected into the plan. Any grandfathered plans will not be included in the Open Enrollment process.
Required Documents
Any documents that are required to be uploaded by the employee during the Open Enrollment must be listed here. This field will be visible in the third tab in WEBOEE to indicate to the employee what documents are needed for each plan. If none of the coverages in the plan require documentation, this field should be left blank.

Coverages
Recipient Type
This field determines the recipient eligible for the coverage. This field is used for Open Enrollments. Recipient_Type is a fixed lexicon (X_PLAN_RECIPIENT_TYPE). If the coverage is only available to the employee, ‘Not Applicable’ must be selected. The type of recipient defined at the coverage will filter the list of benefit recipients available to the employee for that plan during the election period. The filtration is done by comparing the recipient type lexicon values to the stored values of the relation lexicon in IECT. The system will check for a recipient type at the coverage first, if none are found it will then check the plan type to see if one has been defined at that level. If the system cannot locate a recipient type for either the coverage or plan type, all of the employee’s contacts defined in IECT will be listed for the employee to elect. The page Benefit Recipient Matrix for Open Enrollment shows which relation values fall under each of the recipient types.
Display Sequence
This will determine the order the coverages are listed within the plans in WEBOEE.
Waiting Period
If there is a waiting period before an employee is eligible for the plan, specify the number of days.
Minimum hrs/wk
Used when an employee must work a minimum number of hours per week to qualify for the plan.
Max # Recipients
If the coverage is only available to a specific number of recipients, define the maximum number allowed.
Max Child Age
If the coverage is open to children and there is an age restriction, state what the maximum child age is. The election process will verify the recipient’s age based on their birth date defined in IECT.
Max Student Age
If the coverage is open to students and there is an age restriction, state what the maximum student age is. The election process will verify the recipient’s age based on their birth date defined in IECT. This will only be in effect for those recipients who are defined as Students in IECT.
Evidence Required
If evidence is required before an employee can be enrolled into a plan, then this should be toggled ON.
Estimated Costs
If the EE and ER costs are based on estimated earnings the Estimated Costs toggle should be checked ON. With this ON there will be a notation displayed for the coverage’s cost in WEBOEE.
Pre Tax
With this toggle checked ON, this will identify to the employee in WEBOEE if the coverage is Pre Tax or Not.
Exclude From OE
A coverage may be excluded from an Open Enrollment by checking this toggle ON.

Components
OE Enter Elections
This is only used in BSS for Open Enrollments. This toggle must be checked if an employee must submit information before electing a coverage, such as a Deduction amount for a Flex Spending account. This will prompt the employee for the necessary information. Again, if the BC is not visible in IBEN then the BC will not be visible in WEBOEE.
ALLOW_VALUE_OVERRIDE
In order for the Employee and Employer Costs to display in WEBOEE and IBPOE, this toggle must be checked ON for BC-B0840 and BC-B1040.

Step 7: IBSC – Define Benefit Schedule#

If new plans have been defined, ensure they have been added to the benefit schedule.

New to the IBSC are the Waiting Period (Days) and Minimum Hrs/Week fields. Any data supplied here will override what has been defined for the coverage.

Step 8: IDGR – Define Groups#

Clients can determine which set of employees are eligible for Open Enrollment by checking ON the toggle Enable OE Elections in IDGR. Only employees tied to a group with this ON will be able to process Open Enrollments.

Step 9: IBET – Define Benefit Event Types#

Open Enrollment is triggered by events whether those are life, work, mass open enrollment or ad hoc events.

Clients are required to define event types that will suit their needs, this is done in the IBET form. Common event types are Mass Open Enrollment, Birth of Child, Marriage, Adoption, Divorce, New Hire, Termination etc..

Tied to each event type are the benefit plans that employees will be eligible to elect into or make changes to.

Event Type
This is the Event Type code used to classify events, whether those are life events, work events, mass open enrollment or ad hoc events. These are user defined.
Open Enroll Type
This determines if the event is a life/work event, a mass open enrollment, an ad hoc event or an event that is Always Open.
Description
This provides a brief description of the event. This description will be carried over to IBOE when an OE period is created. If a description is provided in UBOE it will override the description in IBOE. This is also what is displayed to the employees in WEBEV for the life/work events.
Days Open
This states how long the enrollment is to be left open. This is used to calculate the Open Enrollment End Date for life / work events.
Proof Required
If employees are required to submit proof that the event took place, this toggle should be turned ON. For example, some carriers require a birth certificate or a marriage license.
Allow Auto Open Enrollment
This toggle allows an open enrollment period to be automatically generated if a life/work event is recorded in WEBEV / IBEV. This is only used for life/work events. If the toggle is not checked for any plans associated to the event, an Open Enrollment will not be created and the Administrator is responsible to create the Open Enrollment period for the employee.
Standing
Standing is used to indicate the status of the event type, it may be frozen, obsolete, active. Standing is tied to the lexicon X_STANDING.
Event Type URL
This field allows clients to include a URL for employees to gain more information on the event.
Event Type Text
This field allows for more information to be posted on the actual event type. This will also respect basic HTML tags. Again, this will be carried over to IBOE.


Plans Affected
Plan Election Set
If there are Plan Election Sets that are to be included in the event, users can specify the Plan Election Set instead of listing each plan individually. This will group the plans within the plan set together.
Plan
Plans that are not part of a Plan Election Set but should be included in the enrollment should be listed individually.
Description
This is the benefit plan description which will default in once the plan has been selected.
Election Required
This is used to force the employee to elect a coverage from a plan. This toggle will default as checked ON if the plan’s participation rule is ‘Required’. For Plan Election Sets, if one plan in the set has ‘Required’ defined as the participation rule, then the toggle will be checked ON. This can be used to override the Participation rule for Open Enrollments by selecting or unselecting the toggle.

Step 10: IMFD – Maintain Form Definitions #

In order for the employees’ election choices to be automatically saved when entered in WEBOEE the Auto Commit preference must be added to the WEBOEE screen in IMFD. The value for the preference must be Y.

Headers and Footers can be used to tailor the WEBOEE screen. If headers and/or footers are to be used, the preferences Header and/or Footer should be added to the screens in IMFD.

If birth certificate, marriage license or health questionnaire do not meet your business needs, the form item name prompts for these documents may be translated to something else. These media are used in WEBOEE, IBPOE and in VBOEE.

Additional media may be added to the WEBOEE form if documents other than birth certificate, marriage license, or health questionnaire are required. Media codes must first be defined in IMEC for P2K_HR_IDENTITIES. These new media codes would need to be added to the form definition for WEBOEE, IBPOE and VBOEE. The three existing media codes in WEBOEE can be used as an example.

Step 11: IMRO – Define Roles #

In order for employees to make use of Open Enrollment execution rights for the Open Enrollment, forms and reports must be given to the appropriate execution type roles.

Since there are two My Benefit Elections forms, WEBEL and WEBOEE, ensure that execution rights are granted to only one of the forms. To make use of Open Enrollment, employees must have access to WEBOEE. Access to the following new forms and reports should be granted to the appropriate users: IBET, IBOE, IBPOE, VBOEE, IBEV, RBET, RBOE, UBOE, UBPOE.

Notes #

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This particular version was published on 26-Nov-2021 10:22 by jescott.Top