During open enrollment, employees can accept or decline employer-sponsored insurance, such as health insurance, dental/vision plans, and voluntary benefits (like life and disability insurance), among other options. This annual window offers the opportunity to enroll in, change, or update coverage options so that employees can take control of their benefits and health care finances.
By providing open enrollment resources, employers can help employees understand important insurance terms, assess their personal care needs, and select plans that align with their budget and lifestyle. The following articles provide various tips and important information to help employees navigate through open enrollment with ease.
- Open Enrollment FAQ Guide
- 5 Tips to Prepare for Open Enrollment Early
- Preparing for Open Enrollment: Common Questions & Answers
- Know Your Benefits: Open Enrollment Tips
- Know Your Benefits: Introductory Benefits 101 Guide
- Open Enrollment Cheat Sheet – Infographic
- Open Enrollment Checklist
- 5 Mistakes to Avoid During Open Enrollment
- Open Enrollment Employee Benefits Acronym Cheat Sheet
Open Enrollment FAQ Guide
During open enrollment, employees likely have questions about how to make educated choices on benefits enrollment for the upcoming year. The choices made during this period can have a lasting impact on both health and overall well-being. However, navigating the array of plans, yearly changes, terminology, and cost structures can be challenging. The guide below provides answers to the questions employees might have about open enrollment.
- When Is Open Enrollment?
- Where Do I Sign Up?
- How Will I Know How Much Care I Need?
- What Is a 401(k)?
- What Is a Premium?
- What Is a Deductible?
- What Is a Copay?
- What Is Coinsurance?
- What Is an Out-of-Pocket Maximum?
- Why Are Health Care Costs Rising?
- What Happens If I Miss the Open Enrollment Period?
- Can I Make Enrollment Changes Midyear?
- If I Change Plans, Will My Doctor Still Be in Network?
- What Is an HSA?
- What Is an FSA?
- What Are Voluntary Benefits?
- Do I Still Have to Enroll in Employee Benefits if I’m Not Making Any Changes?
5 Tips to Prepare for Open Enrollment Early
Open enrollment is a critical time frame each year for employees to review, assess, and modify their existing benefits or enroll in new ones. The article below provides five tips to prepare for open enrollment early so employees can make educated choices about benefits enrollment.
- Become familiar with health care basics.
- Understand standard terms (like deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance).
- Navigate information effectively.
- Educate yourself using reputable benefits resources, information from your HR representative, or your manager.
Check for communications and key dates from your employer so you can understand your open enrollment period and avoid getting stuck with a plan that no longer suits your needs or even losing coverage entirely. Employers often share announcements about informational sessions that can help guide your decisions and important updates about available health plans, costs, deadlines, and new benefits that could affect your coverage, finances, and overall well-being.
Preparing for Open Enrollment: Q&A
As open enrollment season approaches, it’s never too early to start preparing so that employees can make educated choices on benefits enrollment for the upcoming year. The article below outlines questions you might have about open enrollment.
Your employer will guide you through the enrollment process and provide information such as:
- Enrollment Dates & Deadlines
- Access to your Benefits Portal or HR System (Parrott Navigator)
- Plan Comparison Tools
- Links to Summary Plan Descriptions
- Contact Information for HR or Benefits Advisor (CRM at Parrott)
- How often did you visit doctors last year?
- Do you or your dependents have any chronic conditions?
- Are you planning for a major procedure, surgery, or childbirth in the coming year?
- Do you take regular prescriptions (e.g., generic medications or specialty drugs)?
- What are your out-of-pocket costs?
- Are your preferred providers in-network?
- Does a health savings account or flexible spending account fit your situation?
- Premium: the amount you must pay to keep your health insurance policy active (typically taken directly out of your paycheck). In return for your premium payment, your health plan covers a portion of your health care expenses, as outlined in your policy.
- Deductible: a set amount you must pay before your insurance company starts sharing the cost for covered medical expenses. Essentially, it represents your initial financial responsibility before insurance helps cover the financial burden of medical care.
- Copayment (or Copay): a fixed amount of money you may be required to pay when you receive certain covered health care services or purchase prescription medications. It is a cost-sharing arrangement between you and your insurer in which your insurer covers the remaining portion of your medical expense in exchange for your copay.
- Coinsurance: a cost-sharing arrangement between you and your health insurance provider. It represents the health care costs you pay after meeting your deductible. Unlike a copay, coinsurance is a percentage of the total cost of a covered service.
- Out-of-Pocket Maximum (OOPM): the most you’ll pay for covered health care services in a plan year. After reaching it, your plan typically covers 100% of your in-network, covered costs for the rest of the year, and usually resets at the start of each new policy year.
- Increased use of behavioral health services as the population ages.
- Rising prices for hospital services and prescription drugs.
- Growing demand for specialty drugs such as GLP-1s, Cell & Gene Therapies, and Biologics.
- Administrative costs associated with billing and insurance.
- Chronic illness rates, such as diabetes and heart disease.
- Medical technology advancements, which may be life-saving but expensive.
Know Your Benefits: Open Enrollment Tips
Making wise decisions about benefits requires planning. By selecting benefits that provide the best care and coverage, employees can optimize their value and minimize the impact to their budget. The article below provides tips for employees to make the best benefit decisions for themselves and their family.
Assess your health and the health of your family members before making any selections.
Examine how you allocated benefits last year. Consider omitting any benefits beyond health care that you invested in but did not use (retirement, dental, flexible spending accounts, etc.)
Attend all company meetings designed to explain new benefit offerings to learn the ins and outs of new plans and changes to existing plans.
Plan selection and comparison tools can help you determine which plan would be most appropriate in the coming year.
Before selecting a plan, verify that your doctor and hospital of choice are part of the network of health care providers that are covered.
Wellness and disease management programs offered by your employer can not only help you become healthier, but you can also receive potential discounts on your health benefits.
- Utilize tax-free benefits such as health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), and dependent care spending accounts.
- Make sure you are saving enough to be comfortable during retirement, and don’t forget to take advantage of your company match in your retirement account.
Savings vehicles such as health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), and dependent care spending accounts provide tremendous tax advantages and can be used to pay for health-related costs that are not covered by your insurance.
Make sure you are saving enough to be comfortable during retirement, and don’t forget to take advantage of your company match in your retirement account.
Know Your Benefits: Introductory Benefits 101 Guide
The introductory guide below is intended to provide individuals with the basics about employee benefits (especially those who are new to insurance) so that employees can understand what their employer is offering to them.
- How Does Health Insurance Work?
- Health Insurance Terminology
- Health Insurance Marketplace
- Annual Limits and Preexisting Conditions
- Fee-for-Service Plans
- Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO)
- Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)
- Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO)
- Point-of-Service Plan (POS)
- High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP)
- Cafeteria Plans
- Health Savings Account (HSA)
- Health Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
- Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)
- Prescription Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- Retirement Benefits
- Nontraditional Benefits
Open Enrollment Cheat Sheet - Infographic
Open enrollment is the time of year when employees can make changes to their benefit elections. The article below defines common open enrollment terms to help employees navigate their benefits options.
- Coinsurance
- Consumer Driven Health Care (CDHC)
- Copayment (Copay)
- Covered Charges
- Deductibles
- Dependents
- Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
- Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs)
- Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs)
- Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
- High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs)
- In-Network
- Inpatient
- Medically Necessary (or Medical Necessity)
- Medicare
- Members
- Out-of-Network
- Out-of-Pocket Expenses
- Out-of-Pocket Maximums (OOPMs)
- Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs)
- Premium
- Primary Care Physicians (PCPs)
Open Enrollment Checklist
Open enrollment is the time for employees to consider their medical needs and prepare for the upcoming year. There’s a lot to think about when selecting health care benefits. Proper planning not only allows employees to be prepared but also can give them peace of mind. Employees can use the checklist below as a guide to help prepare for open enrollment.
Open enrollment is just around the corner. Taking the time now to prepare can help employees select the right health plan for themselves and their family.
5 Mistakes to Avoid During Open Enrollment
The decisions employees make during open enrollment are crucial, as they impact health, finances, and well-being for the next year. The article below outlines five mistakes to avoid during open enrollment to help employees make educated choices on coverage for themselves and their family.
- Give yourself ample time to review all the materials your employer provides.
- Plan to attend informational sessions equipped with knowledge and any questions you might still have.
- Plan to make your elections early in case you have any additional questions or run into technology or administrative issues.
- HSAs offer pre-tax contributions, tax-free growth, tax-free withdrawals for qualified expenses, and rollover.
- FSAs can help cover OOP medical costs and allow for a rollover of unused funds up to $660 at the end of the year.
- Did my health plan meet my actual needs last year—both expected and unexpected?
- Did I spend more than I anticipated on health care? Why?
- Were there coverage gaps that affected my health care or finances?
- Did I use all the benefits available to me, such as HSAs, FSAs, or wellness programs?
- Did I skip care because of cost or confusion about coverage?
Administrative mistakes could always happen, such as: employees not being enrolled in plans they had selected, being incorrectly billed for dependents, and being left enrolled after leaving a company. After the plan year begins, it’s difficult and complex to make corrections.
With this in mind, be sure to double-check your elections and verify confirmation documents, looking for missing dependents, incorrect coverage levels, and unexpected deductions. Contact HR if anything looks wrong.
Open Enrollment Employee Benefits Acronym Cheat Sheet
These resources are to be used for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace the advice of an insurance professional. © 2025 Zywave, Inc. All rights reserved.
