Open Enrollment

The 2024 Open Enrollment period for CY 2025 health benefits is October 15 to November 8, 2024.

2025 Updates

• Healthcare FSA increase to $3,200
• New Prescription Drug Vendor, MedImpact: MedImpact is the State of Maryland’s Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM) effective January 1, 2025.
  • MedImpact Healthcare Handbook (pdf)
  • MedImpact FAQs (pdf)
• All employees enrolled in the Prescription Drug plan will automatically receive new Prescription Cards in the mail between 12/10/2024 and 12/15/2024. 
• Prescription Drug plans are not included in any of our Medical Plans.  You must be enrolled separately in order to have prescription drug coverage.

2025 Benefits Guide and Rates

• Health Benefits Guide 2025 (pdf)
• My MD Benefits Information Site
• Regular Faculty and Staff Rates (CY 2025) (pdf)
• Contingent Faculty and Staff Rates (CY 2025) (pdf)

How to Enroll or Make Changes

All eligible faculty and staff will receive an Open Enrollment event in Workday.  There are two ways you can see your Open Enrollment event:

1. Your SPS/ WorkDay Inbox
2. In the Announcements section on your SPS/Workday homescreen

Complete Your Open Enrollment Quick Reference Guide (pdf)

Link to Work Day

Locating Your W Number

1. Go to Maryland Connect Work Day
2. Click View Your Profile
3. Go to Personal tab on the left side of the page
4. Go to the ID tab at the top of the page
5. View your W number

2-Factor Authentication

Please be aware that you must have 2-factor authentication set-up in order to access your benefits information. If you have not done so, refer to this Quick Reference Guide (PDF). 

For Assistance

For Assistance contact Anjanette Evans at aevans@bowiestate.edu

Adding Dependents

When adding a new dependent during Open Enrollment, required supporting documentation must be attached to the Open Enrollment Event in SPS. 

See Dependent Documentation Requirements guide (pdf) for details.

• Required dependent(s) documentation must be uploaded by 11/8/2024 at 5 p.m. OR the newly added dependent(s) will be removed from Open Enrollment coverage. New Dependent(s) will not have coverage effective January 1, 2025.
• Employees can take pictures of the required documentation and upload legible screenshots to the Open Enrollment event Attachment Box
  - OR -
  Upload documents to the attachments box located at the end of your event.

Please examine your document carefully, if you do not posses the proper version, you will have to order the correct document.

Common document examples include:

• Children require an Official Birth Certificate
• Spouses require a Certified Copy of the marriage Certificate issued by the court clerk. They will NOT accept a marriage license labeled as certificate.  If it is:
  • Only signed by an officiant (pastor, priest, rabbi, reverend, etc.)
  • Dated Prior to the Date of Marriage or on the Date of Marriage - For example, a marriage license
  • Untranslated if married outside of the United States.  

Where can I obtain the correct documentation?

• For a certified copy of your marriage certificate - The courthouse in the county of marriage 
• For a birth certificate - Division of Vital Records in the State of the child's birth
• For a translated copy of your marriage certificate search the Web for "official translators near me"

Domestic Partner Eligibility

Domestic Partner Eligibility

• lived together for at least 12 months
• not married to anyone else nor have another domestic partner
• at least 18 years of age and mentally competent to consent to contract
• reside together in the same residence and intend to do so indefinitely
• have an exclusive mutual commitment similar to that of marriage
• are jointly responsible for each other’s common welfare and share financial
  obligations

Documentation must show that the partnership has been established 12 months or longer.  It is important that any documents are dated as far back as possible.

Required documentation includes:

• Signed Affidavit of Domestic Partnership (PDF)
• Two of the following:
  • Joint lease or mortgage
  • Designation of Domestic Partner as beneficiary for life insurance AND retirement contract
  • Designation of Domestic Partner as primary beneficiary in employee's or insured's will
  • Durable property AND health care powers of attorney
  • Joint ownership of a motor vehicle, joint checking account or joint credit accountIf adding dependents, see Dependent Documentation Requirements (pdf) for additional information on documents needed.

Open Enrollment Event information

• ​​​​​​​​​2025 Virtual Health Fairs Schedule (pdf)
• 2025 On-Site Health Fairs Schedule (pdf)

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

Important information regarding FSAs for 2025

Faculty and staff who want flexible spending accounts (FSAs) for 2025 must re-elect their FSA amounts during open enrollment each year.

• FSA elections do not roll over from one year to the next.
  The maximum Healthcare FSA annual election amount has increased - it is $3,200. The maximum Dependent Daycare FSA annual election amount of $5,000 remains static for plan year 2025.
• If you aren't making changes to your current benefit elections and do not plan to elect a FSA for 2025, then you do not have to do anything in Workday during OE. Your benefits will default to your current elections with the exception of FSAs. 

Wellness Plan 2025

2025 is a “Reset” year for Wellness Incentives, which means that you need to complete your wellness activities to earn the incentives in 2025, your rewards continue until 12/31/2026!

​​​​​​2025 Wellness Activities (pdf)

To view more details on the wellness activities, Visit the Wellness Home page.

FAQs

If I am not making changes to my benefits, do I have to complete my Open Enrollment event?
If you are not making any changes to your benefits including adding or removing a dependent, changing plans or choosing new coverage that you do not currently have, and you do not wish to enroll in an FSA, if you take no action, your current selections will roll over to Year 2025. 

I want to enroll in a Healthcare or Dependent Care FSA(s) account for Calendar year 2025, do I need to do anything during Open Enrollment?
The FSA account elections do not rollover every plan year due to IRS guidelines.  If you want to elect an FSA, you must act on your Open enrollment event.  If currently enrolled for 2024 in the Healthcare or Dependent Care FSA(s) account, you must re-elect it during Open Enrollment to continue the FSA elections for Year 2025. 

What happens when you click the “Save for Later” button?
The elections will not submit as an election change but will remain in the Open Enrollment event until the employee goes back in to complete it.  If the employee does not go back and "Review and Submit" the changes they will not go into effect for January 1st of the next benefits plan year and the employee elections will remain the same in the next plan year as they were in the previous benefits plan year.

After the employee clicks review and submit they should also click on the "I accept" box and then click submit.

What happens if someone submits something on the last day of Open Enrollment and it contains an error? Will there be additional time given for corrections?
No

If I have a qualifying life event during the Open Enrollment period, do I have until later than November 8th to complete Open Enrollment elections?
Employees who have a qualifying life event during Open Enrollment will receive an Open Enrollment event after the life event is reviewed/finalized by the State of Maryland – Employee Benefits Division.  Your Open Enrollment event will be placed on hold until your life event is finalized.

You will have until November 8th OR 14 days after the life event is reviewed and finalized, whichever is later to complete Open Enrollment elections.

After completing Open Enrollment elections, why do I see a Coverage Begin Date earlier than 2025 for benefits?
You will see the date when you originally enrolled in that benefit plan. If no change was made to the benefit plan, the coverage begin date for which you originally enrolled in that plan will display. The exception is for FSA since you have to re-enroll each plan year. If you elect the exact same FSA coverage amount for 2025 as you elected in 2024, the Coverage Begin Date will show the previous Coverage Begin Date. However, if you elect a different coverage amount for 2024, the Coverage Begin Date will updated to 1/1/2025.

Need Assistance?
For Assistance contact Anjanette Evans at aevans@bowiestate.edu