Benefits Open Enrollment
Selecting Your Benefits Once a Year
The IRS allows employees to make certain benefit contributions through pre-tax salary reductions, which lowers their taxes and saves them money. Because of these tax savings, the IRS allows you to make benefits changes only during an annual open enrollment period, unless you experience certain life changes. Open Enrollment is your opportunity to review your insurance and pre-tax benefits coverage and make choices for the upcoming calendar year. You should actively enroll during Open Enrollment to ensure your benefits meet your needs. Open Enrollment typically occurs at the beginning of November, to become effective on January 1.
Benefits Selected During Open Enrollment
- Medical and Prescription Insurance
- Dental Insurance (every two years)
- Vision Insurance (every two years)
- Long Term Disability Insurance
- Life and AD&D Insurance
- Spousal/Domestic Partner and Child(ren) Life and AD&D Insurance
- Health Care Flexible Spending Account
- Dependent Care Reimbursement Account
Open Enrollment announcements and information are mailed to benefits-eligibility faculty and staff at the beginning of the Open Enrollment period. The Benefits Workbook is available online, and contains important information about the various benefits plans, their provisions and costs.
Open Enrollment Benefits Workbooks:
- Benefits Workbook for Domestic Full-Time Faculty and Staff (.pdf)
- Benefits Workbook for Domestic Part-Time Faculty and Staff (.pdf)
- Benefits Workbook for Employees Receiving Long-Term Disability (.pdf)
- Benefits Workbook for Expatriate Employees (.pdf)
- BenefitsWorkbook for Local Hires of Carnegie Mellon International Locations (.pdf)
- Benefits Workbook for COBRA Participants (.pdf)
- Benefits Workbook for Retired Faculty and Staff (.pdf)