Your Business Benefits Open Enrollment Guide

If your inbox is suddenly full of carrier renewal information and your employees are asking, “Wait, when do we need to choose our plans?”, then welcome to open enrollment season. For businesses with a January 1 plan year, this time of year can get busy quickly. Renewal decisions, employee questions, compliance notices, payroll updates, and all of the other year-end priorities have a way of landing on your desk at once.

The good news is that open enrollment doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. A little planning ahead can make the process much smoother, give your employees time to understand their options, and help you avoid the last-minute scramble. Here are a few things I’d put on your list now.

Start Earlier Than You Think You Need To

One of the biggest open enrollment mistakes I see is waiting too long to get started.

Employees need time to understand their options, compare costs, talk to their spouse or family, and ask questions before making a decision. If you send everything out at the last minute and give employees five days to figure it all out, you’re probably going to spend those five days answering a lot of “What does this mean?” emails.

For a January 1 renewal, I generally recommend starting the planning process no later than November 1st, giving yourself 60 days. Your formal enrollment window can be two to three weeks, but the communication around it should start well before that.

And don’t forget to build in some breathing room. You want enough time after enrollment closes to get elections submitted, resolve any issues, and make sure everything is ready to go on January 1.

Make It Easy for Employees to Understand

Benefits are complicated enough without making employees dig through a multi page PDF to figure out what they’re actually paying.

One of the best things you can do is make the information easy to understand. Give employees a simple comparison of the plans, explain what’s changing from last year, and clearly highlight employee contributions, deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums, and anything else they really need to know.

I also recommend using more than one way to communicate. Send the information by email, offer a quick Q&A or benefits meeting, and send a reminder before enrollment closes.

You don’t need to overwhelm people with every possible detail. Your goal is to make it easy for employees to understand their choices and make an informed decision.

Be Prepared for Higher Costs

If your renewal came back higher this year, you are definitely not alone.

Health insurance costs continue to rise, and many employers are seeing significant increases at renewal. That means you may be looking at changes to plan design, employee contributions, deductibles, or even the carriers and plans you offer.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for how to handle that. But whatever changes you make, communication is going to matter.

Employees are much more likely to understand a benefit change when you explain why the change is happening and clearly walk them through what it means for them.

Don’t Forget the Compliance Pieces

Open enrollment is more than choosing your health plan. There are also required notices and other compliance items that need to be handled along the way.

Depending on your plan and your employee population, this may include things like the Medicare Part D Creditable Coverage Notice, Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC), Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act notice, and applicable CHIP or Medicaid premium assistance notices.

Put these on your checklist now so they don’t get lost in everything else happening at the end of the year. And keep a record of what was distributed, when it was sent, and who received it. It’s a simple step that can save you a lot of headaches later.

Use Open Enrollment as a Chance to Listen

Open enrollment is also a really good opportunity to ask your employees what they actually think about their benefits. What do they use? What’s confusing? What would they like to see changed? Are there benefits they value that you didn’t realize were important?

You don’t need to create a complicated survey. Even a few simple questions can give you useful feedback when you’re thinking about next year’s benefits strategy.

And Don't Try to Do It All Yourself

There is already plenty on your plate during Q4. Open enrollment doesn’t need to become another project that takes over your evenings.

At Rising Tide HR, this is something we help our clients with every year. We can help build your enrollment timeline, coordinate with your benefits broker, organize plan information, prepare employee communications, make sure required notices are handled, and help answer the questions that come up throughout enrollment.

The goal is simple…get your employees the information they need, get everything submitted on time, and avoid the last-minute scramble before January 1.

If open enrollment is one more thing you don’t have time to manage this year, reach out to Rising Tide HR. We’d be happy to help you get it organized.