Here are some common questions about setting up and kicking off your open enrollment (OE) event in Maxwell:

• I don’t understand what a passive enrollment is. Can you help me?
• Do you support an OE with products for which the plan year has already started?
• I’m setting up my open enrollment and I’m seeing auto-enrolled on some of the benefits. Should I be checking those as well?
• I’m trying to set up a passive OE for a product, but the previous product I’m looking for is not displaying. Why?
• How do I include employees who are currently listed under the warnings section of my Open Enrollment summary?
• I started setting up an OE but haven’t completed it yet. Can I leave and come back?
• I’m trying to set up OE, but it says I don’t have any products listed. What should I do?
• What happens to benefits set up with a passive enrollment once I complete the setup?
• What happens to benefits set up with an active enrollment once I complete the setup?
• I completed OE setup and it looks like a benefit that is supposed to be linked in the shopping experience is not automatically added to the employee's cart. What’s wrong?
• Why is an employee listed as excluded from the OE if their life event date is in the future, after the OE End Date?
• What happens if there’s a new hire or life event once OE has been setup or started?
• What if I have warnings that appear on my dashboard for missing salary or demographic information?

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Q: I don’t understand what a passive enrollment is. Can you help me?

Certainly! Check out this article on passive vs. active enrollments.

Q: Do you support an OE with products for which the plan year has already started?

Yes, an OE can include products with plan year effective dates that are up to 90 days in the past from the day you’re setting up OE. The plan year end date must also be at least 90 days away from the day you’re setting up OE.

Q: I’m setting up my open enrollment and I’m seeing auto-enrolled on some of the benefits. Should I be checking those as well?

Yes, when you set up your open enrollment, even if the benefit is labeled as "Auto-Enrolled" you will need to check it off to include it in your open enrollment setup. This will automatically add it to your employees' shopping cart and enable the auto-enrollment setting.

Q: I’m trying to set up a passive OE for a product, but the previous product I’m looking for is not displaying. Why?

This may be because of the plan year dates on either product. Previous products will only display to map passively if their plan year end date is 90 days before or after the effective date of the new product. If you’re not sure when your plan year is for either product, contact our Support Team.

Q: How do I include employees in my OE event who are currently listed under the warnings section of my Open Enrollment summary?

If you haven’t completed setup yet, there’s still time to get those employees included. See the options in this article.

Q: I started setting up an OE but haven’t completed it yet. Can I leave and come back?

Of course! Once you’ve saved a draft Open Enrollment, you can leave and come back before you complete it. When you log back in and go to the “Set up Open Enrollment” screen, you’ll be asked to pick up where you left off.

Q: I’m trying to set up OE, but it says I don’t have any products listed. What should I do?

Your benefits may not be set up yet for your implementation or renewal. Please reach out to our Support Team. 

Q: What happens to benefits set up with a passive enrollment once I complete the setup?

If the employee enrolled in the benefit previously, the passive enrollment setup will set the same matching options from the employee's previous enrollment in their shopping cart for the new plan year automatically. The employee can still login and make changes during the enrollment event, but if they do nothing, their enrollment will carry forward.

If the employee waived the benefit previously, the passive enrollment setup will automatically set a status of "waived" for the same benefit in this year's enrollment event. The employee can still login and make changes, but if they do nothing during the enrollment event, the waiver will carry forward.

Note: If an employee's benefit was terminated at any point prior to the Open Enrollment setup (including with a future termination date), the options will not passively map for that employee. That employee will need to actively login to enroll or waive the benefit.

Q: What happens to benefits set up with an active enrollment once I complete the setup?

Generally speaking, benefits with active enrollments will be set to a status of "Open." Any benefits with an active enrollment that are auto-enrolled will be added to the employee's shopping cart automatically. These are products that have a full employer contribution or require 100% employee participation. After you complete OE setup, you can view the products on each employee's profile. You can also run the Enrollment Status Report to see enrollment elections across all employees.

Note: You determine which products are auto-enrolled when we are setting up your implementation or renewal. Please contact your Implementation Manager if you have any questions about how that works.

Q: I completed OE setup and it looks like a benefit that is supposed to be linked in the shopping experience is not automatically added to the employee's cart. What’s wrong?

Are you running an active enrollment for this benefit? If so, that’s why. An active enrollment will make the benefit available, but not automatically add it for the employee. This is the case even if the benefit should be automatically added for an employee after the employee selects another benefit. The only exception to this is for HSA benefits with linking. These benefits will interact with linking rules after an employee selects the HSA-compatible medical plan.

Note: We set linking rules to benefits based on the information you provided when setting up your implementation or renewal. Please contact us if you have any questions about how that works.

Q: Why is an employee listed as excluded from the OE if their life event date is in the future, after the OE End Date?

All employees who have an open event date will be listed here, even if their event is in the future. If you’d like to include them in the OE, you can end the event and, if necessary, kick it off again after OE is over.

Note: You won’t be able to kick off a “new hire” event again in the future, but as a workaround, you can kick off an “Administrative Change,” open the relevant “Eligible Products” for shopping, and click Done on the event.

Q: What happens if there’s a new hire or life event once OE has been setup or started?

Please see this article on dual enrollment >

 

Q: What if I have warnings that appear on my dashboard for missing salary or demographic information?

If your employees have missing salary or demographic information that is required for employee enrollments, you will not be able to end the enrollment event. You or the employee will need to complete any required information in order to enable the End Open Enrollment button.

You have a few options on how you can update this information:

• If your enrollment time period is still active, you can remind individual employees to login and complete information.
• You can go directly to an individual employee's profile to complete any missing information.
• You can use the bulk upload tool to update information across multiple employees.

View more details about alerts related to Open Enrollment events here >>