The Waiting Game: Considerations for Your Benefits Waiting Period
The ACA requires that folks become eligible for medical insurance no later than 90 days after hire. Most insurance companies require that...
We prefer to meet with every new employee. Yes, every new employee. An employer is spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on benefits per year. It's worth the 30-45 minutes spent orienting the new employee to the program. It provides us with an opportunity to explain each of the benefits, go over best practices and nuances, and review how to enroll once they've had a chance to digest all of the information.
2020 forced us to adjust how we conduct Open Enrollments, but also made us much more efficient in the process. We shifted to primarily Zoom Open Enrollment meetings and online elections through Employee Navigator. As the world opens up more, we'll certainly cater to whichever method the employer prefers, in-person or virtual. We're always open to one-on-one consults after the meetings too, which provides employees the opportunity to ask personal and health-related questions.
We often will create microsites for our clients to access during Open Enrollment and throughout the year that will include brief videos reviewing each of their specific benefits. Not everyone is always able to attend a Zoom or in-person meeting, and it's admittedly difficult to remember everything that's said without feverishly taking notes. We also find in a lot of instances that the employee is not the "insurance person" in the household. These microsites allow all family members to be educated on the benefits program.