As a broker, there are several steps to take to get the employer and their employees prepared for Open Enrollment. This is a step-by-step process on where to go in the benefitbay® portal so you can make sure they are ready to go for Open Enrollment.

Go to your Agent Home and scroll down to the Employee List. Find the company you want to set up for Open Enrollment and click on the View button to the right.

This will take you to the Employer Dashboard of the company you are working on. First, find Set Up Enrollment Dates and click on Change Dates. There, you will edit to the most current Open Enrollment period coming up. Next, set up the Enrollment Start Date, Enrollment End Date, and Coverage Start Date. Click on Save, go back to the screen shown below, then click on Upload Census.

Load the final census (make sure you click the box to Replace Employees as shown in the picture below). Include everything required, such as an address, email address, hourly rate or annual wages, pay type, employment start date, and current coverage. Add dependents to the census only if they are currently covered; otherwise, the employee can add dependents if they choose, during the Open Enrollment process. You can leave the TIN# (SSN) column blank if you'd like employees to complete it. Premiums will be updated by uploading the new census. If some states' rates are not updated, you may need to click Update Benchmark Plans before locking the model.

If some states' rates are not updated during the final census load, you may need to click Update Benchmark Plans before going into ICHRA Modeling. Confirm everything is updated, then go to ICHRA Modeling and click on Define Contributions.

Once the contributions have been double-checked click on the orange button to lock the final model. After locking the final model, go to the top of the screen and click on Edit Employer. Scroll down to confirm everything is correct and click Save and Continue.

Click on the Business Configuration section and change the Prospect to Client. Then confirm your PEPM Fee Mark-up is correct. Click Save and Continue.

Save and Continue to Medical Shopping Paths - update shopping paths for each state for Off-Exchange and Medicare.

Click Save and Continue to Business Contacts. Click on Add New Contact.

Click on the drop-down window to the right. Add a primary employer business contact. The primary employer business contact selected will automatically be sent an invite to the benefitbay® system as the primary employer business contact. You may add additional business contacts (system admins) if you wish.

Next, the employer admin will click on Complete Signatures and sign the ICHRA plan agreement. This will then trigger the process of creating the Plan Document on our end.

The employer will need to pre-fund the account at least three days before Open Enrollment starts.

Please schedule employee emails to be sent out on the first day of Open Enrollment.

During Open Enrollment, the broker and the employer business contacts will be able to track the progress.