Topics Map > Human Resource System (HRS) > Benefits Administration
Overview of Benefits Eligibility Fields in HRS
Overview
Specific values in the Benefits Eligibility Fields on the Benefits Program Participation page found on Job Data drive an employee's assignment to a specific Benefit Program and specific Benefit Plan options. This reference document provides Benefit Administrators with an explanation of each field and its use for troubleshooting purposes. The Benefits Eligibility Fields can be accessed from an employee's Job Data pages by navigating to: Workforce Administration > Job Information > Job Data, and then clicking on the Benefits Program Participation hyperlink at the bottom of the page. Although there are 9 Eligibility Fields available in PeopleSoft, the UW is currently using only Fields 1 through 5. For more information about eligibility rules for specific benefit plans, please visit the OHRWD Benefits website (See link under Additional Resources below).Process Considerations:
- The process that updates these values is called the Populate Eligibility Configuration Process (i.e. Pop Config) which runs on a nightly basis. Benefit Administrators can run this process ad hoc as needed if the changes made to eligibility are close to the payroll final calculation deadline. (See Running the Populate Eligibility Config Pop Process Ad Hoc in HRS )
- Benefit Administrators should be aware that running this process and then reprocessing Events using On Demand often results in the triggering of Benefits Retro.
Below is a screenshot of the Benefit Program Participation page. The Eligibility Fields are highlighted in the red box.
The Effective Date for values populated in these fields will be tied to the employee's Job row Effective Date. Each time a Job Row is entered, the Benefit Eligibility Config Pop process will evaluate that employee based on the Job Data in place as of that Effective Date and populate the appropriate values in each field. If a change has occurred on Job that affects an employee's eligibility for benefits (such as a change in Continuity Code), the values in fields will be changed and the employee will be assigned to a new Benefit Program as of that Effective Date. If there is no corresponding change in an employee's Benefit Program assignment, no new row is added to the Benefit Program Assignment section of this page and values in the Eligibility Fields carry forward.
Values in Eligibility fields 1, 2, and 3 are populated by the Pop Config process each night based on information from Job Data (Employee Class, Continuity, FTE, Salary, Job Code and the values from the UW Benefits Tab.) The data is then used by Benefits Administration to assign the employee to the appropriate Benefit Program based on these values. Accurate information on Job Data is critical to ensuring the employee is assigned appropriately. Additional programs such as the Annual UIA and the Annual ICI Processes populate/change values in Eligiblity Config Fields 3 and 5 to drive eligibility for those specific benefit plans. Eligibility Field 4 is set manually by the UWSS Service Operations Benefits Team for special populations of employees. A description of these fields and what the values represent is provided below.
Table of Values:
| ELIGIBILITY FIELD | DEFINITION | CHARACTER VALUES |
| Elig Field 1 | Used to denote WRS Eligibility | Does not default. Must be Y or N. |
| Elig Field 2 |
Used to denote eligibility for State Group Health Insurance, whether employee is eligible for the Out-of-State Health Insurance Rate for the Access (Standard) Plan if that is the plan they choose, and whether an employee is eligible for the full employer share of the premium or the less than half time rate. |
First Character - applicable to State Group Health Insurance Plan. Valid values: N - None; G - Graduate Assistant Health; R - Regular Health (no default value). |
| Elig Field 3 |
Used to denote Income Continuation Insurance (ICI) eligibility. The combination of the values in this field determine the ICI category a new employee is eligible to enroll in, whether the employee is eligible for deferred enrollment in standard, supplemental or both; whether it is the first time the University Staff employee is eligible for Categories 4 and 5 and the employee’s enrolled status in both standard and supplemental at the time the Annual ICI Update process runs. These five values will be created for a new UW employee by a special program that will run daily and updated by the Annual ICI Process each year that re-evaluates the employee's current enrollment status and sick leave balance. |
First Character - ICI category the employee is eligible for or enrolled in. Valid values: 1,2,3,4,5,6 for University Staff; X or D for FA/AS/LI employees. Second Character - indicates whether the employee is eligible to enroll through deferred enrollment for Supplemental ICI. Valid values: Y - Yes; N - No. Third Character - indicates whether it is the first time the employee is eligible to enroll in Category 3, 4 or 5 through deferred enrollment. If employee does NOT enroll through deferred enrollment the first time eligible, this value changes from Y to N during the Annual ICI Update Process meaning it is not the first time and the employee is not eligible. Valid values: Y - Yes; N - NoFor University Staff employees in Categories 1 and 2, this value will always be set to N as there is no standard deferred enrollment opportunity. For University Staff employees eligible for Categories 6, this value will always be set to Y as there is standard deferred enrollment opportunities every year. For FA/AS/LI employees will be X. Fourth Character - indicates whether employee is enrolled in standard. Valid values: Y - Yes, N - No. Fifth Character - indicates whether employee is enrolled in supplemental. Valid values: Y - Yes, N - No. |
| Elig Field 4 |
Used to denote whether an employee has an ERA Waiver of Section 125 pre-tax deductions in force or not and indicates employee is enrolled in “Grandfathered” 50% Supplemental State Group Life Plan. These values will default to "N" and will only be manually changed by the UW Service Center with the appropriate paperwork filed. |
First Character - Employees can elect to have deductions for medical plan premiums taken from their payroll checks on a post-tax basis. This is a Section 125 (FSA) Waiver.Employees will have deductions taken Pre-Tax unless they file the FSA Waiver form. Valid values: Y - Yes; N - No. Defaults to N. When a Waiver is received, a Service Center employee will change the value from N to Y. Second Character - Some employees are grandfathered into the 50% Supplemental State Group Life Insurance plan that is otherwise no longer offered. At conversion the value was established. Valid values: Y - Yes; N - No. |
| Elig Field 5 |
Used to denote that the employee is eligible for the University Insurance Association plan. |
The Annual UIA process populates this field to indicate which employees are eligible for the UIA insurance plan - those are marked with a value of Y for yes or N for no. All other employees have this field left Blank. |
| Elig Field 6 | Not used at this time. | |
| Elig Field 7 | Not used at this time. | |
| Elig Field 8 | Not used at this time. | |
| Elig Field 9 | Not used at this time. |
Additional Resources
Related KBs:Related Links: