Planning for your Open Enrollment in Namely

This article explains how to utilize the Open Enrollment and Carrier Feed projects to configure Open Enrollment successfully.

OVERVIEW

If you’re reading this article, you're most likely thinking about your benefits renewal strategy. Once you've worked with your broker to confirm your plan offerings and rates, you'll want to consider the updates that need be made in the Benefits Administration platform before you and your employees can use Namely for Open Enrollment.

TIP:

If you're a Managed Benefits customer, we'll handle your Open Enrollment configuration and any feed updates! No need to submit any projects or fill out BA sheets - we'll get started on your site build after we've finalized your plan offerings and rates. 

 

BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH NAMELY FOR YOUR CONFIGURATION

While our Benefits Administration tool does empower you to self-configure the majority of your plans, we recommend working with our Open Enrollment team to ensure all of your plans are configured optimally. Working with our team offers a number of benefits:

  • Our team focuses solely on benefits configuration. They have years of experience interpreting and translating benefit requirements into the correct configuration in the Namely platform. This includes proper mapping to deductions, which ensures your employees have the correct amounts deducted from their paycheck. 

  • Our team will ensure the benefits and enrollment options are optimized to take advantage of all the functionality the platform has to offer.

  • Some benefit plan requirements can get tricky - even if they might not appear so on the surface - and may require a member of our team to architect and configure the solution for you.  

 

GETTING STARTED

Proper planning and timely project submission will ensure you're well prepared for Open Enrollment, and will help you identify the best configuration option for your company well in advance of your OE start date.

Your Open Enrollment project should be submitted using the Project Services Catalog at least three weeks before the start of your open enrollment. This will give our team enough time to configure and test your Open Enrollment build and allow you and your team to test your OE as well. 

 

TIP:

We recommend completing the Open Enrollment Assessment before submitting a project to get a better idea of what type of project you will need and what type of assistance we can provide.


Within five business days, a consultant will contact you regarding the information you provided in your Benefits Activation (BA) Sheet and project details.

Below is a sample timeline highlighting project days and milestone tasks:

Your timeline details may vary based on when your project is submitted, the complexity of your plans, as well as the accuracy and timeliness of the information you provide.

 

 

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU

To submit your open enrollment project request using the Project Services Catalog the following information is required:

  • Completed Open Enrollment Assessment

  • Submitted Carrier Feed Review and Modification Project

    • Found in the Project Services catalog by searching OE Carrier Feed Review & Modification.

  • Final benefit plan selections, coverage details and negotiated rates for your upcoming plan year updated on your Benefits Activation (BA) Sheet.

  • Contact information for ongoing communications, questions and testing during the project.

  • Your requested Open Enrollment Start and End Dates.

NEXT STEPS

Download your Benefits Activation (BA) Sheet, located in the Support Files section of your Namely HRIS site. The BA Sheet will have the following naming convention: BA_OE_SHEET_clientID_clientName.xlsx and description is Open Enrollment BA Sheet.
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This document reflects your current benefits as they are set up in Namely. Review the “How to Use This File” tab and work with your Broker to make all necessary updates to this workbook to reflect any changes needed for the new plan year.

 

REQUEST A PROJECT

Open Enrollment projects can be requested in the Namely Project Services Catalog or directly from the Help Community home page under the Other Resources menu. See Using the Project Services Catalog and Submitting an Open Enrollment Project for more information.

 

THINGS TO CONSIDER

  • Open Enrollment Assessment: Once you have finalized your renewal decisions, complete our Open Enrollment Assessment to inform us of the benefit changes for the new plan year. This assessment is required for any Open Enrollment configuration. The information will be saved on your account for future project submissions.

  • Pricing: There is a cost to configuring your benefits site and associated carrier feeds and updates.

  • Late Submissions: Timely submission of an open enrollment project request is critical to ensure project quality and that all critical steps are completed. Requests received fewer than three weeks prior to the requested open enrollment start date introduce significant risk for meeting your requested open enrollment date. Late submissions are also subject to additional fees based on the scope and effort required.

  • Choosing to self configure your open enrollment: The training and articles available in the Namely Help Community are intended for benefit set up that can be accomplished using the Plan Setup Assistant, where you are able to configure on your own.

Please review the Help Community as soon as possible to make the best decision for your configuration. If you do attempt to self configure, then find you need Namely to get involved to fix or take over the set up, you will be directed to submit an Open Enrollment Configuration Fix project in the Project Services Catalog. The cost for this project and submission timeframe are the same as an Open Enrollment project. 

 

CARRIER FEEDS

Refer to our article Open Enrollment Carrier Feed Projects Overview for more information.