Life Changes that May Qualify you for a Special Benefits Enrollment Period

Life Changes that May Qualify you for a Special Benefits Enrollment Period

Your life is always changing, and your benefits will change along with it.

After your first enrollment as a newly eligible employee, your benefits will be in effect until the following Open Enrollment period—unless you have a life event.

Alert
Note: While Open Enrollment is “live,” you will temporarily lose the ability to submit a Qualifying Life Event change. The Open Enrollment event overrides all other qualifying life events except the New Hire benefits elections window.

Life events that may qualify you for a Special Enrollment Period

Notes
Changes in Household

You may qualify for a Special Enrollment Period if you or anyone in your household, within the past 30 days:

  1. Got married. Pick a plan by the last day of the month and your coverage can start the first day of the next month.
  2. Had a baby, adopted a child, or placed a child for foster care. Your coverage can begin on the day of the event if you enroll within 30 days.
  3. Got divorced or legally separated and lost health insurance. Note: Divorce or legal separation without losing coverage doesn’t qualify.
  4. Experienced the death of someone covered under your plan and the death caused a change in your eligibility for coverage.

Notes
Changes in Residence
You may qualify for Special Enrollment Period if you permanently move to a new location and already had qualifying coverage before the move, such as:

  1. Moving to an area where your current plan is not available.
  2. Moving to an area where new plan options become available to you.

Notes
Loss of Health Coverage
You may qualify for a Special Enrollment Period if you or anyone in your household lost qualifying health coverage in the past 30 days OR expects to lose coverage in the next 30 days, including:

  1. Losing job-based coverage.
  2. Losing individual health coverage that you purchased on your own.
  3. Losing eligibility for Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
  4. Losing eligibility for Medicare.
  5. Losing coverage through a family member, such as losing dependent or spouse eligibility.

Notes
More Qualifying Changes
Additional life events that may qualify you for a Special Enrollment Period include:

  1. A court order requiring you to add or remove a dependent from coverage.
  2. Gaining membership in a federally recognized tribe or obtaining Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) Corporation shareholder status.
  3. Leaving incarceration.
  4. Starting or ending service as an AmeriCorps State and National, VISTA, or NCCC member.
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Here's what you need to know when you experience a life event
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  1. You have 30 days from the date of a life event to submit a change in your election. The day of the event is day one. If you don't change your election within 30 days, you won't be able to do so until the next Open Enrollment period, unless you experience a subsequent life event and submit your changes on time.
  2. You may change your 401(k) Plan and 529 College Savings Plan elections at any time during the year, regardless of whether you experience a life event.
  3. You may change your beneficiary designations for the 401(k) Plan, Life Insurance and/ or AD&D insurance at any time, although certain restrictions apply.
  4. Go to Paycor to submit a change in your benefits elections. Simply click on "Benefits Elections" in the left navigation bar on your Paycor profile page.
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ACS Human Resources
Phone: (703) 662-5062 x1

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