April 15, 2019
We are pleased to announce the upcoming new release of BenefitElect version 4.7. This updated version of our software delivers innovative solutions to help you work smarter, not harder. We appreciate your continued partnership as we work together to solve your toughest HR challenges.
PRE-HIRE FUNCTIONALITY (ONBOARDING)
Onboarding just got easier. We are excited to share our enhanced Pre-Hire onboarding functionality for employees who have been hired but have not yet been assigned to a job. The new system allows the Pre-Hire employee to enter personal information without requiring job-related information they may not know.
There are two ways to start a Pre-Hire data entry and enrollment session:
- An HR administrator with the BE Onboarding role logs in each time a Pre-Hire employee needs to enroll in BenefitElect.
- An HR administrator with the BE Onboarding role logs in once. Each time a Pre-Hire employee needs to enroll in BenefitElect, the HR admin can generate a login code. The new employee can use that code to start their data entry and enrollment session.
The system can now be configured to allow the Pre-Hire employee to enroll in benefits or have the system auto-enroll them in default benefits. The Pre-Hire employee’s status will change to Active once the Inbound Census has been updated.
BREAK IN SERVICE FUNCTIONALITY
You asked—we listened. This new release offers sophisticated functionality to support the ability to rehire employees after a break in services (BIS). When an Inbound Census is uploaded or a Rehire is initiated by the HR administrator, the BIS processing will be activated. HR administrators may customize which benefit plans will be processed by the BIS system.
An employee can only be reinstated within the current plan year. If an employee is rehired within the same plan year and reinstate window, the system will automatically reinstate any benefits that have been configured to be included in BIS processing. Once reinstatement is complete, a new confirmation statement will be generated.
New Hire Defaulting rules will be used for any benefits that have not been configured to be included in BIS processing. New Hire Defaulting rules will also apply for employees rehired outside of the reinstate window. If the employee is not rehired in the same benefit plan year, the employee will not have their benefits reinstated but will be treated as a regular rehire.
CONFIRMATION STATEMENT LINK IN EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS
Confirm benefits with the click of a button. The system can now be configured to provide a link for employees to receive their current confirmation statement when they confirm their elections.
AUTOMATIC ENROLLMENT IN DEFAULT PLANS FOR NEW HIRES
No more missed enrollments! We’re pleased to offer the opportunity for new hires to be automatically enrolled in default plan options if they do not enroll on their own. This new feature allows the system to process new hire enrollments and confirmations when new hires are imported from the Inbound Census or are added to the system via the “Add Employee” HR Admin menu.
SUPPLEMENTAL CHILD LIFE – MAXIMUM STUDENT/DISABLED AGE
Students and disabled children can now have unique maximum age limitations for Supplemental Child Life. The system can now be configured to set a maximum age for Supplemental Child Life for dependent children who are students, while also setting a separate age limitation for dependent children who are disabled. For example, you can set the maximum age limit for Child Life coverage to 18, with an exception for students–to age 26–and no age limit for disabled children.
DEPENDENT INFORMATION SCREEN
Fully customize the demographics fields for Dependents to ensure all necessary information is collected. All demographic fields can now be marked as required. For instance, you can require the employee to enter the child’s Relationship, Student or Disability status.
REPORTING IMPROVEMENTS
Enhanced reporting capabilities allow for further identification of member elections and enrollment confirmation. Both Election ID and Confirmation ID columns have been added to the automatic Eligibility Log Report. Additionally, you will now be notified if the submitted census file does not include all required information. A clarifying error message will be presented to users when an uploaded .zip census file does not have the file name of Employees.csv.
ISSUES RESOLVED
ACA ELIGIBLE CLASSIFICATION CHANGE
We have repaired an issue that made it difficult for the EDI process to identify transactions to send to the COBRA carrier when employee classification was changed from full-time eligible to ACA eligible.
ENROLLMENT: ADDING CHILD(REN) WITH REQUIRED FORM DURING LIFE EVENT CAUSED ERROR
An error that was generated when initiating a Birth of Child(ren) life event has been found to occur when a required form was not offered. Notification is now generated to request the required document.
SECURITY ISSUE: HR ADMIN EMPLOYEE DATA READ-ONLY PERMISSIONS ALLOWED UPDATES OF DEPENDENTS
We have corrected the security controls so that an HR Admin user with Read-Only permissions is prevented from making an update to employee data, including their dependents and beneficiaries.
EMPLOYEE HOME: COVERAGE TAB SHOWED INCORRECT CONFIRMED DATE
We have corrected the system so that unconfirmed elections no longer display a confirmation date on the Coverage History tab on Employee Home.
OVER-AGE DEPENDENTS COVERAGE ISSUE
There were instances in which the enrollment system did not block over-age dependents from supplemental coverage. This issue has been resolved.
REPORT RECURRENCE ISSUE
We have updated our Reporting System to remedy an issue in which certain recurrence settings were not allowed..
NEW HIRES NOT CORRECTLY HELD FOR SUPPLEMENTAL LIFE EOI
New hire configuration for Supplemental Life enrollment has been updated to initiate eligibility correctly.
