Renewing a Client's Benefits: Rollover Rules and Replacement Plans

Purpose

Each year a client's benefits need renewing for the next plan year. In UZIO, a renewal is a new proposal built from last year's. Most of the work is deciding what happens to employees who do nothing during open enrollment. Rollover rules decide whether they keep last year's elections, go into a default plan, or are declined. Replacement plans tell UZIO which new plan replaces each old one when the plans change. This article covers both.

Who can do this: the client's broker, their agency, and account managers linked to that broker.

Before you start

• New rates and any new plans for the renewal year are loaded and activated. See Adding a Medical, Dental, or Vision Plan and Loading Its Rates.
• The client's classes are correct for the new year. See Creating and Managing Benefit Classes for a Client.
• You and the client have agreed the new coverage dates and open enrollment window.

UZIO reminds you when a client's coverage is ending, with an email headed "Attention: client is ready to be renewed". Your client can also receive an email headed "Action needed: Group insurance renewal is due", asking them to review the renewal proposal, so expect questions from them.

Start the renewal proposal

Start the renewal proposal for the client from last year's package. Clone on the proposal list also copies a package as the starting point.

When a renewal is created, UZIO copies last year's package: benefits, classes, contributions, and waiting periods. It then resets what must be decided again:

• Nothing is shared. Every benefit starts unshared, and there is no preview window.
• The enrollment windows are open enrollment windows for the new year.
• Replacement plan choices are cleared. Last year's replacement mappings do not carry over. Set them again if plans are changing.

Work through the proposal as you would a new one, then set the renewal rules below. See Building a Benefits Proposal and Sharing It With Your Client for the general steps.

Scenario 1: renewing with the same plans

1. On the Renewal Enrollment Rules page, choose what happens to employees who make no election:
• Roll over last year's elections.
• Enroll in a default plan.
• Decline all products.
2. To set a different rule for one benefit, use Refine renewal enrollment rules by benefits at the bottom of the page.

If the plans are the same as last year, choosing roll over is all that is needed.

Scenario 2: renewing with different plans

If any medical, dental, or vision plan is changing, UZIO needs to know which new plan replaces each old one. Otherwise employees who do nothing cannot be rolled into the right plan.

1. On the Review page, find the product category whose plans are changing.
2. Click Setup replacement for renewal year.
3. The pop-up lists this year's plans. For each, choose its replacement for the new plan year from the drop-down. For example, map the old PPO plan to the new PPO plan.
4. Save.

Employees who do not enroll during open enrollment are moved into the replacement for the plan they have now.

[Screenshot: Setup replacement for renewal year pop-up mapping current plans to renewal plans (use demo data)]

What happens when open enrollment ends

• Employees who enrolled get what they chose.
• Employees who did nothing are handled by your rules: rolled over (into the replacement plan if the plan changed), put in the default plan, or declined. They receive an email saying the system completed their enrollment on their behalf.
• Then release the enrollment and send it to the carriers. See Tracking Enrollment and Releasing It When Open Enrollment Ends.

Common problems

Employees who did nothing were declined instead of rolled over. Check the rollover rule for that benefit, including any per-benefit refinement. If the plans changed, check that a replacement plan was set for every plan and every class. Without a replacement, UZIO has no plan to roll the employee into.

An employee's FSA or life coverage did not continue. These benefits never roll over. The employee must enroll actively. If the window has closed, the employee needs a qualifying life event or a reset enrollment to change it.

The replacement plan I set last year is gone. Replacement mappings do not carry over from one renewal to the next. Set them again on each renewal.

Related articles

• Building a Benefits Proposal and Sharing It With Your Client
• Changing a Proposal After It Has Been Shared
• Tracking Enrollment and Releasing It When Open Enrollment Ends
• Your client's view: Tracking Open Enrollment and Completing an Enrollment for an Employee
• Your client's view: Understanding Grandfathered Coverage