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Review of the Flex Spending Account/Limited Purpose Flex Spending Account New Hire Enrollment Process in HRS

Overview

New employees can elect a Medical, Dependent Care, or Limited Purpose Flexible Spending Account (FSA) by completing an FSA Enrollment form within 30 days of their date of hire or by completing their elections on line using Self Service.

1. Employee submits a paper enrollment application or applies using Self Service within 30 days of hire.

2. If paper application, Benefits Office reviews enrollment form and enters into HRS (Reference: 58169 ). See below for enrollment application tips.

3. If paper application is received, file it in employee's benefits file.

4. Shared Services sends enrollment files to Optum Financial on the same day that payroll confirms.

5. Optum financial creates an account for employee.

Process Considerations:

  • If an employee is enrolling in the Limited Purpose FSA (LPFSA), verify in HRS that the employee is enrolled in a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and a Heath Savings Account (HSA) plan first. If the employee is not enrolled in both plans, they are not eligible for the LPFSA. The Benefit Administrators should also check with the employee to see if they meant to enroll in the Medical FSA plan instead.
  • If an employee is trying to make a change to an existing election due to a Qualifying Life Event, please visit Processing FSA and LPFSA Qualifying Events in HRS  for that process.

    Overrides on FSA/LPFSA:

  • Employee contributions will be deducted in equal amounts from each paycheck, pre-tax, throughout the Plan Year.  Employees must follow the 26 or 20 pay schedules
    UWSS Benefits Service Delivery will be querying for overrides that are placed on employee Spending Accounts and will remove any that are not allowed
  • If employee is 9-month (C-basis) and enrolled via Self Service, the contribution per pay period will reflect 12 months.  UWSS Benefits Service Delivery will audit for the 9-month employee Self Service enrollments and will enter in the overrides manually.  Only 9-month (C-basis) employees will have overrides on their accounts
  • Employees may not have overrides placed on their FSA accounts UNLESS it is their final paycheck prior to retirement/termination. These requests should be submitted to UWSS Benefits Service Delivery for processing.
You may click on the links below to navigate directly to a section:

Instructions for Completing and Verifying the Application

1.  Enter the following information:

  • Employer Name = Univ of WI - System
  • Employee ID = Employee's HRS Employee ID
  • Enrollment Status = New Enrollment or Re-Enrollment
  • Change Effective Date = Coverage is effective the first of the month following date of hire. When you enter this in HRS, use this date for the FSA or ADM Event date. Adding Events to the BAS Activity Table in HRS
  • Date of First Payroll: Pay date of when first deduction is taken. Normally, this will be the payroll that includes the coverage effective date.
2.  Verify the information in the Enrollee Personal Information section:
  • Employee Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Social Security Number
  • Home Phone Number
  • Home Address
  • Email
  • Mobile Phone Number
  • Marital Status
NOTE: Regardless of what the employee writes on the form for their contact information, it is their current contact information in HRS that will be transmitted to Optum Financial.  The address will be what is listed as the "Mailing" address in HRS, the phone and email listed as "preferred" will be sent on the file." Emails from Optum Financial will go to the preferred HRS email, not what the employee writes on the form.
  • If the employee would like to update their Optum Financial profile, they may do so when their information has been transmitted to Optum Financial and an account has been created.
3.  Verify the employee election amounts for Health Care and/or Dependent Care:
  • Annual Employee Contribution: 
    • Annual Employee Contribution:  Amount entered is for the remainder of the calendar year
    • Number of regular pay periods:  Count the number remaining in the calendar year (Note: FSA, LPFSA, and HSA are not taken on C Payrolls or during summer months for C-Basis employees unless they have earnings from a summer service job)
    • Contribution per pay period:  Divide the number of remaining pay periods in the calendar year to determine a pay period deduction.  (UWSS Benefits Service Delivery will calculate and update the override amount for 9-month employees) 
Flex Page 1
4.  Verify that the employee has signed and dated the application.
Flex Page 2
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Keywords:
fsa flex flexible spending account era employee reimbursement account lpfsa limited purpose savings saving enrollment ConnectYourCare Optum hire rehire BN, Benefits BN, Benefits 
Doc ID:
49765
Owned by:
erinn b. in UW–Shared Services
Created:
2015-03-30
Updated:
2024-05-14
Sites:
UW–Shared Services