Office of Human Resources
Individual Choice
Enrolling in Individual Choice
Enrollment Highlights
Featured Document
Add Beneficiary / Contact Form - 2010Featured Document
If you are an active employee eligible for Ithaca College benefits, you are eligible to participate in Individual Choice. You also may enroll your eligible dependents, including
- your spouse or qualified domestic partner;
- unmarried children up to age 19* who are dependent on you, including stepchildren and legally adopted children;
- unmarried children between the ages of 19 and 25* who are full-time students enrolled in an accredited school and who continue to be dependent on you;
- unmarried children who are older than the age dependent coverage would otherwise terminate and who are incapable of self-sustaining employment because of mental illness, developmental disability, or mental retardation, as defined in the New York State Mental Hygiene Law, or because of physical handicap. The condition must have occurred before the child reached age 19* at which dependent coverage would otherwise have terminated and currently be enrolled under an Ithaca College sponsored plan. The child’s disability must be certified by a physician. In addition to this certification, the plan has the right to check rather a child is and continues to qualify as an incapacitated child.
Please contact the benefits department to schedule an appointment to enroll in the plan of your choice.
* The age limit is reached on the day of the child’s birthday.
If you are newly hired or if you want to change your current beneficiary designation for your life and/or accident insurance benefits, it is imperative that you keep your life insurance beneficiariy designation current. In order to elect a beneficiary, you must:
- Fill out the Add Beneficiary/Contact form
- Submit the form to the Office of Human Resources
- Designate your Beneficiaries online via Employee Self Service
IF BOTH FAMILY MEMBERS WORK AT ITHACA COLLEGE
If you are married to a benefit eligible Ithaca College employee, or if both you and your qualified domestic partner are eligible employees, each of you must complete the enrollment process. If you have eligible dependents you wish to cover, you must elect shared family coverage and use the rates for that level. If there are no eligible children, each member must elect "employee only" coverage.
No person may be covered as both an employee and a dependent, and no person may be covered as a dependent of more than one employee.
DEPENDENTS BETWEEN THE AGES OF 19 AND 25
If you have dependents between the ages of 19 and 25, please note the following important benefit information.
- All unmarried dependents up to age 19 are eligible to participate in the College's Medical, Dental, Dependent Life and ADD plans.
- Unmarried children between the ages of 19 and 25 who are full-time students and primarily dependent on you are also eligible to participate.
-
It is your responsibility* to notify Human Resources and fill out the Benefit Contact Update Form as well as updating Aetna and/or First Ameritas when your child turns age 19, if he/she is a full-time student, to prevent the stoppage of coverage and to prevent that any claim be pended.
-
To inform Aetna that your over-19 child is a full time student, you can call the member services number on your card, or fax them a copy your insurance card with the dependent's class schedule, bill or other document reflecting full-time student status. For the Open Choice POS II plan, the number is 1-800-962-6842. For the Open Choice High Deductible Health Plan, the number is 1-800-364-2386.
-
To advise First Ameritas, make sure to fill the related information in the claim forms or you can call member services at 1-800-487-5553.
-
- You may have to contact Aetna and/or First Ameritas once each academic year.
-
If your child no longer meets the eligibility requirements, you must notify the Benefits department within 60 days of their loss of eligibility.
- If your child graduates in May/June/July/August, he/she will be covered until August 31st of that year.
- If your child graduates at any other time, his/hers coverage will end the last day of the pay period after the graduation date.
- If the dependent loses eligibility they will be offered continuation of coverage through COBRA for up to 36 months.
Special note for re-enrollment: if your child turns 19 in November or December, make sure to submit the Benefit Contact Update Form to Human Resources before you complete the re-enrollment process.
*You must notify the Office of Human Resources when your dependent turns 19, even if he/she is using the Tuition Remission or Cash Awards Benefits.
Under a "cafeteria" plan, current IRS regulations require that the benefit elections you make remain in effect throughout the entire plan year. However, participants may be permitted to change their pretax elections during the year if they have a "change in status."
Election changes resulting from a change in status must meet a "consistency" requirement — thus, any election change must be on account of and correspond with a change in status affecting eligibility for employer plan coverage. For example, for divorce, legal separation, death, or loss of a dependent, an employee may cancel coverage for the spouse or ex-dependent, but may not be allowed to make other changes.
Allowable changes in status under current IRS regulations include:
- Change in marital status, including marriage, divorce, legal separation, annulment, or death of spouse.
- Change in number of dependents, including birth, death, adoption, and placement for adoption. This extends to dependents who become newly eligible for plan coverage because of a plan amendment.
- Change in employment status of the employee, spouse, or dependent, including commencement or termination of employment, change in worksite, commencement or return from a leave of absence, gain or loss of benefit eligibility by a dependent.
- Change in residence of the employee, spouse, or dependent. This might include a child moving away to attend college and losing eligibility for a region-specific plan.
- Dependent meeting or ceasing to meet the plan's definition of "dependent," such as attainment of a specified age or ceasing to be a student.
Corresponding changes to payroll will not be made until appropriate elections are processed. To change your contribution to a flexible spending account during the year, you or an eligible dependent must have had a "change in status" as described above. In addition, the following status changes also qualify:
- Dependent care account only: change in dependent care provider’s rates (unless the dependent care provider is your or your spouse’s relative) or switching of provider.
- Dependent care account only: your dependent otherwise ceases to be eligible.
- Health care account only: entitlement to Medicare or Medicaid.
You must change your elections within 30 days after the life-status change takes place if it involves adding yourself or an eligible dependent to your benefits. For a life-status change that constitutes a COBRA qualifying event, (one in which you take a dependent off your coverage) you have 60 days to change your elections.
Any eligible employee hired during the plan year will have the opportunity to enroll in the Individual Choice program.
IF YOU DO NOT COMPLETE THE ENROLLMENT PROCESS
If a new employee or an employee who is newly eligible for benefits fails to complete the enrollment process within 30 days, no credits are given, and no coverage is in effect.
IMPORTANT TAX AND BENEFIT INFORMATION
Individual Choice will affect your Social Security tax and other benefits as follows:
Social Security
Flexible Spending Account payments made with before-tax dollars reduce the amount you pay in Social Security taxes, therefore contributions to an an FSA may cause your benefits from Social Security to be reduced. For most people, the effect will be minimal.
Pay-Related Benefits
Any reduction of your pay that results from before-tax contributions into the Flexible Spending Account(s) or to pay for additional benefit coverages does not reduce the total pay used to calculate your benefits. In other words, your benefits will be based on your regular base pay.
TIAA/CREF
If you participate in the TIAA/CREF basic retirement plan, the College's contribution will be based on your actual base salary and will not be reduced because of your participation in Individual Choice.