Benefits Eligibility & Enrollment

Eligibility Requirements for Full Benefits

• An employee must be appointed at least half-time (equivalent to 7.5 Weighted Teaching Units for academic year appointments) for more than six months, or;
• If employed in an R03 Lecturer or Coach Academic Year position, employee must be appointed for at least six (6) weighted teaching units (0.4 full-time equivalent) for at least one semester.
  
  (Qualifying appointments may be either permanent or temporary.)

An employee who does not meet the eligibility criteria above may be eligible for medical coverage or FlexCash only under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if any of the following criteria is met:

• Works an average of 130 hours per month based on an annual review of computed timebase or reported hours during a 12-month measurement period, or
• Appointed with at least a .75 timebase regardless of length of appointment (duration) or initially hired to work at least 130 hours per month.

Non-Eligible Employees

Employees excluded from medical benefits include:

• Intermittent employees
• Student assistants
• Graduate assistants
• Faculty employed solely to teach summer session, extension, or intersession
• Any employee paid from funds not controlled by the California State University or from revolving or similar funds from which a regular California State University premium payment cannot be made.

Enrolling in Benefits

Enrolling in benefits for the first time

If you are eligible for and wish to enroll in benefits, you must enroll within 60 days of employment/eligibility. Your benefits will begin the first of the month following your date of hire, as long as the Human Resources Office receives your enrollment documents by the end of the month that you were hired.  Employees who fail to enroll within the sixty (60) day timeframe will delay the effective date of medical coverage for a minimum of ninety (90) days after submitting the appropriate documents to Human Resources. Temporary Faculty who become eligible in the fall semester will begin benefits on the first of October, as long as all enrollment documents are submitted by the end of September. 

Example: Your date of hire was on March 2nd. If you submit your elections to Human Resources Benefits by March 30th, your enrollment in medical, dental, and vision plans will be effective April 1st.

New Hires/Newly Eligible – How to Enroll

Please wait until you receive a benefits email from Human Resources

If you are eligible, and have received an email from Benefits@humboldt.edu you must enroll within 60 days of employment/eligibility. Your benefits will begin the first of the month following your date of hire, as long as the Human Resources Office receives your enrollment documents by the end of the month that you were hired.  

Employees who fail to enroll within the sixty (60) day timeframe will delay the effective date of medical coverage for a minimum of ninety (90) days after submitting the appropriate documents to Human Resources.

Faculty and lecturers who become eligible in the fall semester will begin benefits on the first of October, as long as all enrollment documents are submitted by the end of September. 

How to Enroll:

1. An email from Benefits@humboldt.edu will inform you of your eligibility dates and state that e-benefit enrollment is available
    
2. Carefully review plan summaries, rate comparisons, regarding your health plan options.
   
   If eligible for dental and vision, be aware that (although subject to change) there are currently no dentists in the area that accept DeltaCare Dental Insurance.  
   
   Your basic VSP plan is automatically set up for you and your eligible dependents, however, if you are looking to sign up for the VSP Premier you will need to fill out this form (https://hsu.link/vsp-premiere-enrollment ) 
    
3. Sign the eBenefits Self-Service Electronic Signature Authorization Form 
   
    
4. Complete your benefits enrollment by logging into eBenefits via Self-Service in PeopleSoft:
   1. Log into the MyHumboldt Portal
   2. Navigate to HR Center from the PeopleSoft drop down menu at the top
   3. Main Menu > Self Service > Benefits > Benefits Enrollment
   4. Click the Select button next to your name
      
      For help getting to the enrollment page, and completing your enrollment in e-benefits, please see our quick guide or Step-by-step reference guide.    
       
5. If you will be enrolling any eligible dependents, you will need to have the following information ready to complete the electronic portion of the enrollment process:
   • Their full, legal name (as it appears on their social security card)
   • Their date of birth
   • Their Social Security Number
   • Marriage certificate/Declaration of Domestic Partnership
     • Please note that adding a domestic partner may have additional tax implications.
   • Birth certificates/court order for each child 
     • Adult children over the age of 26 who are disabled may have continued eligibility and will require additional CalPERS forms/certification.  Please contact Human Resources for further instruction.  
       
       Supporting Documentation is required to add dependents and/or enroll in FlexCash. If you do not provide this documentation, your benefits cannot be finalized and your enrollment may be canceled.  You may bring physical copies to room 212 Siemens Hall (open Mon-Fri, 8am-12pm, 1pm-5pm), or you may upload the documents through our secure system, MoveIt.

“Fine Print” – Please Review

By electing to enroll in a health benefits plan, you agree to authorize deductions from your salary to cover your share of the cost of enrollment as it is now or as it may be in the future.  You certify that the information provided during enrollment is accurate and listed dependents are eligible family members as defined in the Public Employees’ Medical and Hospital Care Act.  If you choose to decline enrollment, you must wait at least 90 days after you request enrollment or until the next Open Enrollment period before enrolling in the CalPERS Health Program.  If you or your eligible dependents involuntarily lose other health insurance coverage, you may request enrollment into the Program within 60 days from the date of lost coverage.  Failure to request enrollment within 60 days will result in a 90-day waiting period, or until the next Open Enrollment period. The effective date of coverage will be the first of the month following the 90 day waiting period, or the Open Enrollment effective date.

The coverage offered meets the minimum value standard under the ACA, and the cost of this coverage to you is intended to be affordable, based on employee wages.  However, you may still be eligible for a premium discount through Covered California. Covered California will use your household income, along with other factors, to determine whether you may be eligible for a premium discount. If, for example, your wages vary from week to week (perhaps you are an hourly employee or you work on a commission basis), if you are newly employed mid-year, or if you have other income losses, you may still qualify for a premium discount. Covered California can help you evaluate your coverage options, including your eligibility for coverage through Covered California and its cost. Please visit http://www.coveredca.com or call 888-975-1142 for more information.

The State Controller’s Office and insurance companies use the information requested for the purposes of identification and coverage processing.  This information is protected under The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), The Information Practices Act of 1977 (Civil Code Section 1798.17) and the Federal Privacy Act (Public Law 93-579).  Failure to provide the mandatory information may result in the enrollment action not being processed or being processed incorrectly.  To review how your information will be used and to learn more about your privacy rights, please see the privacy policy documents provided to you when you completed your sign-up paperwork.  
 
By electing to enroll in a health plan, you agree that you understand that enrolling in certain health plans requires binding arbitration and that any dispute as to medical malpractice, that is as to whether any medical services rendered under this contract were unnecessary or unauthorized or were improperly, negligently, or incompetently rendered, will be determined by submission to arbitration as provided by California Law and no by a lawsuit or resort to court process except as California law provides for judicial review of arbitration proceedings.  The parties to this agreement, but entering into it, are giving up their constitutional right to have any such dispute decided in a court of law before a jury and instead are accepting the use of arbitration.

Qualifying Life Events

 You can make changes to your benefit enrollments after certain qualifying life events, such as marriage, birth/adoption of a child, gain/loss of coverage, or divorce.  Please contact us if you have a situation that you believe may enable you to make changes to your enrollment.  You will need to submit a hard copy benefits enrollment worksheet with wet signature and supporting documentation (as listed above) to make changes outside of the open enrollment period.