As employees review, adjust and select benefits during this year's open enrollment, they'll also have an opportunity to share their opinion about those benefits in a campuswide survey.
ALEX is Iowa State's new virtual benefits counselor, an online tool that provides personalized suggestions for benefits choices. Employees still select their benefits options in Workday.
Open enrollment is the one time each year when employees can add, drop or make changes to most benefits, other than adjustments allowed to accommodate qualifying life events such as job and marital changes, births and deaths. This year's open enrollment starts at 8 a.m. Nov. 1 and runs through 5 p.m. Nov. 18. Elections are made in Workday and go into effect Jan. 1.
The benefits survey will be open for a slightly shorter time period, Nov. 1-15. It's the university's first benefits survey in about 10 years, and it will be used to better understand employees' benefits preferences and how benefits programs impact their experience working at Iowa State.
Here are the details employees need to know about both open enrollment and the benefits survey:
Benefits survey
University human resources (UHR) has contracted an independent human resources consulting firm, Mercer, to conduct a benefits survey. On Nov. 1, Mercer will send all employees an email with a personal link to the survey and instructions for completing it. The email will be from ISUbenefitssurvey@mercer.com, and the subject line will be "Iowa State University Benefits Survey."
Employee participation is vital to making the survey a success. Responses are confidential, and the survey should take 15-20 minutes to complete. The survey includes quantitative questions gauging agreement, preference, prioritization and satisfaction as well as qualitative questions offering opportunities for open-ended comments. Questions cover several topics, including well-being concerns, views of existing benefits and how ISU benefit offerings are valued.
Survey results will help guide future improvements, program development, communications and service enhancements. For instance, the results of a benefits survey about a decade ago helped influence the creation of ISU Wellbeing, the UHR team that offers Adventure2 and other well-being programming.
Participants enrolled in Adventure2 will automatically receive points for completing the survey.
Employees who have technical questions about the survey should contact Mercer at ISUbenefitssurvey@mercer.com. For questions about the survey content, contact the UHR benefits team at benefits@iastate.edu.
Open enrollment
Premiums are remaining steady in 2023 for the eyewear discount plan and supplemental life insurance. An increase to health insurance premiums was announced last month, and dental insurance rates will be a bit higher, as well. Depending on family members covered, employees will pay $4-$33 more per month for the HMO health insurance option and $4-$19 more for the PPO option. Increases to dental premiums will range from $2-$6 per month for the basic plan and $1-$8 for comprehensive coverage. Basic employee-only dental insurance is still free.
If employees make no changes to insurance benefits such as the health, dental, life and vision plans, they will remain enrolled and coverage will continue. Employees who contribute to tax-free flexible spending accounts for health or dependent care expenses must sign up during open enrollment, as those elections do not automatically continue in the next year.
The 2023 maximum for a health care flex account is increasing to $3,050, up from $2,750. The maximum health care flex rollover -- the amount unused in an account that can carry forward to the next year -- will increase to $610, up from the $570 that can be carried into 2023. The dependent care maximum remains $5,000 per household.
The third-party vendor who handles flex account reimbursements, ASI Flex, will offer a new reimbursement option for health care claims starting in 2023. Employees can contact ASI Flex to request a debit card to directly pay for health care expenses with flex account funds. If electing to use the debit card option, employees aren't eligible for automatic reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses on claims filed through ISU health, prescription or dental plans.
Faculty and staff who don't plan to modify their coverage or use a flexible spending account still are encouraged to review their benefits elections during open enrollment because it's the most convenient time to identify desired changes. The newly available virtual benefits counselor, ALEX, can help recommend what options are best based on an employee's circumstances, such as how much to put in a flexible spending account or what insurance plan to select. Using ALEX also can rack up points in Adventure2. Employees who wish to use ALEX's suggestions still must enter their choices in Workday during open enrollment.
For more information about open enrollment, see an online presentation by a UHR benefits counselor or contact the benefits team to set up an individual in-person or virtual consultation.
