Open Enrollment (OE) Guide: Current Clients
Moving into a new plan year can raise questions about data, deadlines, resources, and more. This article walks you through our most common questions and answers.
To ensure a successful transition into the new plan year, please follow the procedures below. If any requirement cannot be met within your systems of record, contact your Benepass Customer Success Manager (CSM) to establish an alternative project plan.
Key deadlines
Action | Deadline | Example / Note |
Notify Benepass of updates to integrated systems of record | October 15 | Change in HRIS, BenAdmin, or Payroll vendor |
Submit requested custom configuration changes | Before November 30 | Changes to benefit configurations, enrollment rules, etc |
Submit the initial new plan year OE test file & notify CSM | By end of day, local time, on December 1 | Optional |
Continue sending current plan year data | Through December 31 | Do not stop sending current plan year elections |
Submit OE updates or corrections | Before January 1 | For any election that changes between OE and 1/1 (more below) |
New plan year data sent on active file feed | January 1 | On or before 1/1. Any record changes on or after 1/1 should be sent on the active file feed. |
Before you begin:
Before submitting your Open Enrollment files, make sure:
✓ Your file format matches your current production file.
✓ New plan year elections have been finalized.
✓ Your OE file contains the complete eligible population.
✓ The file uses the OE_ filename prefix.
✓ Your CSM has been notified after each production upload.
Open Enrollment & End-of-year Data Procedures
To ensure a successful transition into the new plan year, please follow the guidelines below. If any of the below guidelines are not possible within your systems of record, contact your Customer Success Manager to establish an alternative project plan.
Ensure that your new plan year election data is in the same format as your current enrollment data.
Benepass can review Open Enrollment files outside of your active integration for quality assurance (QA) only. These files are used for validation only and do not replace your active production file feed. Ensure your new plan-year elections are included in the active file feed on or before 1/1 of the new plan year to avoid disruption to employee benefits.
Once Open Enrollment is finalized, you can include election data for both the current and upcoming plan years on your integration files.
Current plan year elections should come over on the ongoing file, unchanged.
Upcoming plan year elections should display as
INACTIVEwith anelection_start_date= 1/1 of the new plan year. These elections can be added to the file feed as soon as those elections are finalized.On 1/1, the new elections should change their status to
ACTIVE.Benepass will automatically manage runout and grace period status changes for previous plan year elections.
Do not set old elections to
INACTIVEuntil on or after 1/1 of the new plan year. Benepass will handle enrollment status changes into runout or grace periods automatically.If an employee’s Open Enrollment election changes after it is sent over to Benepass via file feed, do not delete the election record. Rather, set it as
INACTIVE. Benepass integrations do not automatically action records that disappear from your files.
File and integration requirements
Your new plan-year data must use the same format, layout, and headers as your current enrollment data. No changes are required to the current file headers or layout.
The initial OE file must:
Be a full file containing the complete OE enrollment population.
Include the most current enrollment information available.
Include new
Plan Year = 202X.Include new
Election Start Date = 202X-01-01.Include
is_active = Y.Use the
OE_filename prefix.Provide the file via your standard Benepass SFTP integration.
For production OE files, be sure to include the OE_ prefix.
The OE file will be collected outside of your active integration for QA purposes only. It does not replace the active file feed.
After providing the file via your standard Benepass SFTP integration an OE file, email your CSM to confirm that the file has been submitted. Clients should continue notifying their CSM after each OE file upload, including corrected or updated files.
January 1 file-feed cutover
Continue sending your regular current year payroll or eligibility files through December 31. Do not stop your existing feeds when you submit the OE file.
Your active file feed must be updated to include new plan year data on or before January 1.
Benepass will verify that the file feed has been successfully cut over. If the feed has not been updated to new plan year data on or before January 1, If your production file feed has not been updated by January 1, Benepass may temporarily use the most recent validated OE file to create new plan year elections while your production integration is corrected. To avoid discrepancies, please ensure your OE file reflects your most up-to-date enrollment information.
Testing, validation, and corrections
Testing and file review are available upon request. To submit a test file, use the TEST_OE_ filename prefix and notify your CSM after uploading it.
For test OE files, Benepass will validate the file against the standard file specifications and the latest processed production file.
If errors, mismatches, or formatting issues are identified:
Benepass will provide feedback on the required corrections.
Clients are responsible for ensuring that Benepass receives accurate election data.
Provide the updates file via your standard Benepass SFTP integration a corrected, full OE file using the
OE_prefix.Notify your CSM after uploading the corrected file.
Benepass will complete a follow-up validation.
Please submit all corrections prior to January 1.
Changes after the OE file is submitted
If an OE test file is submitted and employees make any election changes between OE and January 1: upload an updated, full OE file using the OE_ prefix and notify your CSM.
Any changes made on or after January 1 should be sent through the ongoing, live elections file.
IRS Rollover Maximums
After the IRS maximums for the new plan year are released, Benepass will update your plan documents to reflect those accordingly, unless directed otherwise.
No action is needed if your plans use the IRS maximum rollover, and you plan to use the new maximums.
If you plan to maintain a rollover maximum other than the IRS maximum, please contact your Customer Success Manager.
Platform Funding
Many benefits see a large increase in spending in December and January, and some benefits have pre-funded amounts that land on January 1st. As a result, the Benepass platform funding account may need to be replenished more frequently.
For accounts set up for automated funding, the Benepass platform will automatically ensure sufficient funding levels. For self-funded clients, we recommend reviewing the balance of your account often, before and through the new year, to avoid delays in employee accounts being funded.
Automated funding clients: no action needed.
Self-funding clients: If you self-fund your benefits, we recommend funding your account well before January 1 and monitoring balances closely during the first few days of the new plan year to help avoid funding delays.
Employee Materials
Visit our Employee Communication Content Library tab here for downloadable employee content. Contact our Admin Support team at [email protected] if you need access.
Support
Your Customer Success Manager is your primary point of contact throughout Open Enrollment. You can also reach our Admin Support team at [email protected] if you need assistance.