How to Choose? Making Your Way through the Open Enrollment Labyrinth

Open enrollment can be a tricky time for employer plan sponsors and participants alike. It’s the time when employers open a “window” allowing eligible employees to choose health and welfare benefits (like dental, term life, long-term disability) for the following year.  Lots of questions arise. Has the human resources department provided the right information? Are employee questions adequately addressed, like … is a high-deductible plan right for me and my family? What’s my deductible? How much should I save in my health FSA? Should I still contribute to a dependent care FSA? Learn more about open enrollment and what info you should provide to employees to make this annual task run more smoothly.

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Related Content

• Open Enrollment Notices Checklist (Health and Welfare Plans)
  Use this checklist to identify participant and beneficiary disclosures that ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, HIPAA, the Affordable Care Act, and other laws may require health and welfare plan sponsors to provide annually where compliance is satisfied by providing employee disclosures at initial plan eligibility and with the employer's annual open enrollment materials.   
• Top Tips for HR Teams During Open Enrollment Season
  Review this Fisher & Phillips article to help prepare your client for open enrollment season.
• ACA and Group Health Plan Resource Kit
  Reference this resource kit setting forth legal compliance resources for employer group health plans. 

Practical Guidance Updates 

Featuring the latest updates from your Practical Guidance account.    

• Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Key Legal Developments Tracker
  Stay informed on new developments.
  • ERISA. The Department of Health and Human Services updated for inflation the civil monetary penalty amounts in its regulations, as provided under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. 88 Fed. Reg. 69531 (Oct. 6, 2023).
  • Retirement Plans. The IRS and Treasury Department set forth final regulations prescribing mortality tables to be used when funding most defined benefit pension plans. 88 Reg. 72357 (Oct. 20, 2023).
  • Health Plans. IRS updates PCORI fee for policy and plan years ending on or after October 1, 2023, and before October 1, 2024. The PCORI fee for the period between October 1, 2023, and October 1, 2024, is $3.22 per covered life, increasing $0.22 per covered life as compared to the PCORI fee assessed on or after October 1, 2022, and before October 1, 2023. IRS Notice 2023-70.
  • Health Plans. Agencies issue proposed regulations related to certain provisions of the No Surprises Act regarding the federal independent dispute resolution process, which was established as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. These proposed rules would set forth new requirements relating to the disclosure of information that group health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance coverage must include along with the initial payment or notice of denial of payment for certain items and services subject to the surprise billing protections in the No Surprises Act. 88 Fed. Reg. __ (unpublished version); CMS, Fact Sheet.
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