One of the first things you’ll want to do after logging into Maxwell for the first time is set up your Employer Preferences. You can find this page under “Settings.” In this article, we’ll review each of the following Employer Preference settings:

• Default reply-to address
• Default welcome email template
• Fields required when adding dependents
• Locking Fields from Editing by Employees
• Sandbox Mode
• Salary effective date and changes
• Medical Waiver Reason

Default reply-to address

Here, you can enter in an email address that you’d like to be the default reply-to address on all communications that are sent to employees from the Maxwell system. This will save you time when you go to manually send emails, as the email will already be populated as the “Reply To:” address, which you can always update if needed.



Note that all emails sent from the Maxwell system are sent from the email address “noreply@maxwellhealth.com.” However, if the employee does reply to the email, it will be sent to the reply-to address, if specified. 

Default welcome email template

Here, you can choose your default welcome email template, whether it’s the Maxwell system template “Welcome & Plan Select - New Hire” or a customized email template you’ve created on your own. When you go to add a new employee (whether individually or in bulk via Bulk Upload), the welcome email template you selected here will default as the choice, which you can always change to another email template if you’d like.

Fields required when adding dependents

Here you can determine which fields (if any) should be required for the employee to complete when they add a dependent to their profile. If you have an EDI connection, we recommend requiring Social Security Number (SSN), as many carriers need that information to enroll dependents.

Note:

• If SSN is set as required, employees can still add a child dependent who is 6 months or younger without an SSN, however, they will need to add the SSN in Maxwell once they receive it.
• This preference does not require the Administrator to enter this information when editing dependents information. However, if SSN is required and has been entered on the dependent, the Administrator will not be able to delete the SSN (only update it).
• If you already have dependents in the system when you update this setting, the required fields will only apply to new dependents and to any existing dependents if the employee or HR administrator goes to edit their information.

Locking Fields from Editing by Employees

Here you can set whether employees have edit or view-only access to their Social Security Number (SSN) when reviewing their profile in the member experience.

This setting is helpful if you manage other systems that may act as the source of record for the employee’s SSN (like a payroll system). This allows you to have more control over how updates or corrections are managed across systems.

If this setting is turned on, the Administrator will be required to enter the employee’s SSN when adding new employees through either the Add New Hire tool or the Bulk Upload tool. This ensures that the employee can complete their onboarding and shopping experience.

When the Social Security Number field is selected under the Fields locked to employees, that field appears as view-only to the employee when they access it from their profile in the member experience.

A tooltip informs the employee to reach out to the HR Administrator if changes are needed to their SSN (contact listed is based on the Main Contact set for the portal).

Sandbox mode

Most of the time, you'll want to have sandbox mode disabled. This means your Maxwell portal is up and running. When a portal is in sandbox mode, employees cannot log into Maxwell, and any data connections (including integrations and EDI) will fail. Emails will not send to employees while the portal is in sandbox mode.

However, you will receive your portal, live (out of sandbox mode), from your Implementation Consultant. At this point, you can test drive the portal to view the employee experience. Be sure to delete any test employees you create for this purpose when you are ready to introduce the portal to your employees.

Salary Effective Date and Changes

With this setting, you can determine which salary the system should look to when determining the coverage options and costs of an employee’s enrollments in salary-based benefits. Read more about salary changes and how they impact benefits here >

Medical Waiver Reason

Here you can determine if you want to require employees to provide a reason for waiving medical coverage. If you have specific carrier requirements, we recommend you enable this setting. To enable, simply navigate to Settings > Preferences > Medical Waiver Reason and toggle the setting to the “Enabled” status.

When enabled, if an employee selects to waive medical coverage during their benefits shopping, this feature will prompt them to select a waiver reason from a standard list of options. The employee will be required to enter a selection before the waiver will apply to their shopping cart.

Please Note: The options to select from are based on a standard set of waiver reasons and cannot be customized at this time. If no options apply, the employee can respond with a custom reason.

After you’ve enabled the Medical Waiver Reason requirement, any captured responses will be available for you to include when running the Cost and Coverage Report - Horizontal from your Reports Library.

Use the following settings to include waiver reasons when running the coverage report:

• Benefit Intent filter should include “Waived”
• Benefit Fields column setting should include “Waiver Reasons”

Note:

• The Medical Waiver Reason setting will only appear in your Preferences area if you offer medical coverage to your employees on Maxwell. If you choose to add medical products onto Maxwell at a later date, you will then see the option to turn on the Medical Waiver feature.
• If any of your employees had waived their medical coverage prior to this feature being enabled, they will not be required to enter a waiver reason until the next active enrollment opportunity.