All benefits information stored in MyEnroll.com is associated with a 12-month plan year, in accordance with Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code.
The plan year designation helps to differentiate between benefits information, such as plan offerings and premiums, from one year to another. As a result, administrators and employees can simultaneously manage benefits for two plan years, ensuring that benefit elections for eligible employees are always up-to-date.
There are several reasons why it might be necessary to work within two plan years:
- A new hire could start working during the open enrollment period for the following plan year. The new hire would need to make benefit elections for the remainder of the current year. At the same time, the new hire and other employees would need to make elections for the following plan year through open enrollment.
- An employee could experience a life event during the open enrollment period for the following plan year. In this case, the employee would need to modify her benefit elections for the current plan year while making elections for the following year.
- A new hire could start working towards the end of a plan year and be added to MyEnroll.com after the new plan year begins. This employee would need to make elections for the new plan year and retroactively make elections for the previous plan year.
- An employee could experience a life event towards the end of a plan year and report the event within the prescribed time period for processing life events. For example, the prescribed period could be 60 days following the event. If this period spanned two plan years, the employee’s elections would need to be changed for both plan years.
- An employee termination that occurs towards the end of the plan year might not be processed by an administrator (or a data feed is not sent to BAS for processing) until the new plan year begins. The termination would need to be processed for both the previous and current plan year.
To learn more about plan year designations and working within two plan years, please contact your account manager or sales@BASusa.com.
