Benefits Open Enrollment

Below is information provided by OSE regarding Benefits Open Enrollment! Be sure to mark your calendar!

This year, Insurance Open Enrollment (IOE) will become Benefits Open Enrollment (BOE) as a few major changes will occur. First, benefits will transition to a calendar-based plan year. We will also move to one combined annual open enrollment starting next year for both IOE and Flexible Spending Account Open Enrollment (FSA OE).

To allow this move to calendar-based plan years and one consolidated annual enrollment period for all benefits, there will be two enrollment periods in 2020. They will be called BOE Part 1 and BOE Part 2.
BOE Part 1 runs from August 3, 2020 through August 18, 2020. Like IOE in the past, employees may change or enroll in the usual benefits – health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance – and add or remove dependents. To shift to calendar-based plan years in 2021 for all benefits, the coverage period for BOE Part 1 elections will last only three months from October 4, 2020 through December 31, 2020.

BOE Part 2 will take place from November 2, 2020 through November 24, 2020. Benefit elections during BOE Part 2 will have coverage effective from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021.
BOE Part 2 will include both insurance and FSA enrollment, beginning a single, comprehensive open enrollment for state insurance and FSA benefits. This will occur each fall moving forward, with benefit elections effective the following January 1.

During BOE Part 2, a new health insurance option will be introduced: a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with a Health Savings Account (HSA).1 A Limited Purpose Health Care FSA will also be introduced that will only cover dental and vision expenses and is compatible with the new HDHP with HSA plan. More information on these new options will be shared before their first offering during BOE Part 2.

Beyond the big-picture changes to enrollment, there are also plan design changes during BOE Part 1 for vision, dental, and health benefits.

Effective October 4, 2020 polycarbonate lenses will be a covered in-network benefit under the State Vision Plan and computer and safety glasses benefit.1 Also, an employee-only $1,000 Lasik reimbursement benefit will be added to the State Vision Plan.1 This is a lifetime maximum benefit and applies only to employees; dependents who are not also benefit-eligible state employees are not covered.

Beginning October 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020, the State Dental Plan’s annual benefit maximum will be $1,000.1 Over a standard 12-month plan year, the maximum is
 
 
 
 
normally $1,500, as it will be in 2021. In 2022, the annual maximum will increase to $2,000.1
Lastly, for BOE Part 1 coverage starting October 4, 2020, HMO enrollees will pay the same deductibles over the following 15-month period that they normally would during a 12-month plan year.1 No HMO deductibles will be charged during the Part 1 plan year. Deductibles will reset as normal at the start of the BOE Part 2 plan year on January 1, 2021.

Much more information will be shared throughout the year to explain these changes. Employees will find all the usual open enrollment information they have come to expect and details and resources on the changes occurring in 2020 and beyond at www.mi.gov/BOE.

Beginning August 3, 2020, visit www.mi.gov/selfserv to enroll online through HR Self-Service or call the MI HR Service Center at 877-766-6447, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., to walk through the enrollment process with a MI HR Representative.
1MSPTA-represented employees excluded.