Learn more about Prior Offer Enrollment in the below FAQs and example scenarios.
Answer: Prior Offer is defined as the set of benefits that were offered to a new hire whose benefits effective date was before the renewal date of the renewal group that triggered open enrollment.
Question: Who is eligible to enroll in Prior Offer?
Answer: Not all employees will be eligible to, or need to enroll in plans of the Prior Offer. If Open Enrollment has been opened in BerniePortal, and an employee needs to enroll in benefits for an effective date that falls within the plans of the Prior Offer, BerniePortal will prompt the employee to enroll in Prior Offer plans.
Question: Can I change the plans, rates, deductions, and settings for plans in Prior Offer?
Answer: No. Plans of the Prior Offer are unable to be edited.
Question: How do I view what plans are included in Prior Offer?
Answer: To view "Prior Offer" plans, access the "Benefits" area from the primary navigation menu, then select "Subgroups" from the secondary navigation menu. From the list of Subgroups, select the subgroup you"d like to view the "Prior Offer" for, then select "Offer Overview" from the left. "Prior Offer" plans will be listed in the column on the left labeled "Prior Offer."
Question: If employees are electing both Prior Offer and Current Offer benefits, do employees have to complete both elections at once?
Answer: No. Employees will be prompted to complete both elections, however, employees do not have to complete both elections in one sitting. Employees can log out and come back to complete their elections at a later time.
Question: How will I know which benefits are associated with which offer after an employee enrolls?
Answer: Employee Election Sheets will note the type of enrollment, such as “Initial Elections” or “Qualifying Event” at the top of the page. Additionally, each benefit type on the employee’s election sheet will note the effective date of the benefits. You should use the effective date of the employee’s benefit elections compared to the effective date for each offer (Prior Offer and Current Offer) to determine which set of benefits is applied to which enrollment.
Question: Will I receive one email notification when someone elects both Prior and Current Offer plans?
Answer: No, you will receive two emails - one for each enrollment (if you are signed up to receive enrollment emails).
Question: Will both elections be included on a change report including that time period?
Answer: Yes, both enrollments will be included on the change report if both enrollments took place during the time period for which you ran the change report.
Prior Offer Examples:
Scenario #1:
Employee, Mary Jones, is in the “Managers” Benefits Subgroup.
She is pregnant, and ends up having her baby on 12/5/2021.
She goes to HR on 12/9/2021 and says that she needs a Qualifying Event to enroll her baby, Carrie, effective with her birthdate of 12/5/2021.
Mary already made her elections for the 1/1/2022 Renewal Group on 11/23/2021 when she contacted HR to request a Qualifying Event to enroll her baby.
HR then clicks on “Qualifying Event.”
When Mary logs in to make her elections, she first enters the date of her Qualifying Event for Carrie’s birth date, 12/5/2021.
BerniePortal detects that the date for the Qualifying Event is before the renewal date of the renewal group (1/1/2022) that triggered the most recent open enrollment.
As a result, BerniePortal will present Mary the Prior Offer Plans during her Qualifying Event enrollment.
Upon finishing her elections for the Prior Offer, Mary will then see an alert message telling her that she needs to make her Open Enrollment elections again.
Mary is then taken to another guided enrollment where she will make Open Enrollment elections for Plans of the Current Offer again. (Note: this allows her to add her baby to those plans if she so chooses).
Scenario #2:
Mary had not yet made her elections for the 1/1/22 Renewal Group when she contacted HR to request a Qualifying Event to enroll her baby.
HR then clicks on “Qualifying Event.”
When Mary logs in to make her elections, she first enters the date of the Qualifying Event for Carrie’s birth date, 12/5/2021.
BerniePortal detects that the date for Carrie’s Qualifying Event is before the renewal date of the renewal group (1/1/22) that triggered the most recent open enrollment.
As a result, BerniePortal will present Mary the Prior Offer Plans during her enrollment.
Upon finishing her elections for the Prior Offer, Mary will then see an alert message letting her know that she has not yet made her Open Enrollment elections.
Mary is then taken to another guided enrollment where she will make Open Enrollment elections for Plans of the Current Offer.
Employee, Chris Johnson, gets hired on 11/22/2021 and has a waiting period of 30 days based on his Eligibility Subgroup configuration.
This means that Chris’s Effective Date for his Initial Elections is 12/21/2021 which is before the Renewal Date of the 1/1/2022 Renewal Group that is currently in Open Enrollment.
BerniePortal detects that Chris's Initial Elections effective date is before the renewal date of the renewal group (1/1/2022) that triggered the most recent open enrollment.
When Chris logs in to make his Initial Elections, he will be presented with Plans of the Prior Offer that will be effective 12/21/2021.
Upon finishing his Initial Elections, BerniePortal will then ask Chris to make his Open Enrollment elections.
Chris is then taken to another guided enrollment where he will make Open Enrollment elections for Plans in the Current Offer that will be effective for him on 1/1/22.