Benefits Open Enrollment (BOE) runs from October 14, 2024 through November 1, 2024. BOE is your annual opportunity to enroll in or change elections for health, dental, vision, life, long term disability (LTD) insurance, and Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs).
The effective date for elections and changes is January 1, 2025 and they will first be reflected on the January 2, 2025 paycheck. Deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums (OOPMs) also reset on January 1, 2025. The final day of the 2025 plan year is December 31, 2025. November 8, 2024 is the deadline for providing supporting documentation (e.g., marriage certificate, birth certificate, adoption paperwork) to the MI HR Service Center for individuals newly added to benefits through the BOE process.
Employees do not need to re-enroll during BOE each year to retain existing insurance elections, but are strongly encouraged to review them to ensure their existing benefits will meet their needs for the coming year. FSA elections do not automatically renew. Employees must re-enroll each year if they wish to participate in the FSA benefit.
The BOE website, www.mi.gov/BOE, remains the one-stop-shop for enrollment information, and www.mi.gov/FSA is still the home for FSA resources as well.
*Auditor General and Judicial employees should submit all supporting documentation to their HR office instead of the MI HR Service Center.
There are changes to note during BOE this year. While it is important to review benefits annually to ensure elections will meet your needs for the coming plan year, it is particularly important to weigh your options when there are changes occurring.
The IRS issued a notice that will increase the annual maximum contribution for 2025 Health Care FSAs to $3,300 (previously $3,200), effective January 1, 2025. Additionally, the Health Care FSA carryover limit for 2025 (carried over to 2026) will increase from $640 to $660. If you’ve already enrolled in a General Purpose Health Care FSA or Limited Purpose Health Care FSA for 2025 and would like to increase your annual contributions, you must log in to HR Self-Service by November 1, 2024 and update your 2025 elections.
FSA elections do not automatically renew. You must re-enroll each year to participate in FSA plans. The state continues to offer a General Purpose Health Care FSA, a Dependent Care FSA, and the Limited Purpose Health Care FSA for use with the State High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with Health Savings Account (HSA) for eligible vision and dental expenses.
The IRS has increased the minimum deductible amount that must be charged for an HDHP for plan year 2025, therefore the deductible amount for the State HDHP will be as follows:
For the HSA, the IRS has increased the annual combined employee and employer HSA maximum contribution limit as follows:
The annual HSA employer contribution will also increase from $750 to $800 for an eligible individual employee enrolled in the State HDHP and go from $1,500 to $1,600 for an eligible employee who enrolls with one or more eligible dependents in the State HDHP.
Updates for the Self-Insured Health Plans Effective January 1, 2025, federal legislation requires that the State Health Plan PPO (SHP PPO) and State HDHP comply with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), resulting in some benefit changes that will impact the deductible and coinsurance for certain services.
For example, both medical and behavioral health office visit copays for the SHP PPO will be $20 per visit. For the SHP PPO and State HDHP, inpatient substance use disorder services have changed from two 28-day admissions per year to unlimited days. Additionally for these plans, autism treatment is not subject to the combined benefit maximum of 90 visits for physical, occupational, and speech therapy services and In-network Residential Mental Health treatment will now be a covered benefit.
For a detailed list of covered services, review the SHP PPO and State HDHP Benefit Guides, or a high-level summary on the CY25 Health Plan Comparison Chart.
Effective January 1, 2025, there will be increases to some biweekly premium rates based on anticipated higher costs of dental, medical, prescription, and behavioral health and substance use disorder claim expenses for the coming calendar year. It is important to consider these changes when making your benefit elections.
For the first time since 2007 the State Dental Plan premiums and for the first time since 2015 the SHP PPO premiums will increase. HMO rates, which have gone up in recent years under the HMO-premium formula, will also increase but the employee share will be offset some due to a higher SHP PPO cap for plan year 2025. For HAP, the employee share will decrease and for BCN the employee share will increase.
The State HDHP premium will increase for the first time since the plan was first offered in 2021, but as stated above, its annual employer contribution amount will also increase from $750 to $800 for individual coverage and from $1,500 to $1,600 for family coverage.
Additionally, due to there being 27 pay dates in 2025, State Vision Plan, Preventive Dental and Dependent Life insurance biweekly employer and employee premium rates will be reduced for CY2025 to maintain annual premium totals.
Employees are encouraged to review all aspects of their benefit elections every year, rates included. The effective date for elections and changes is January 1, 2025 and premium changes will first be reflected on the January 2, 2025 paycheck.
Visit the Insurance Rates page to review premiums and the Understanding CY25 HMO Insurance Premium Rates resource for a comprehensive explanation of the employer/employee premium split. The CY25 Health Plan Cost Scenarios and CY25 Health Plan Comparison Chart highlights similarities, differences, and cost-sharing details to assist in helping you choose the health plan that may be best for you.
If you choose to enroll in a different health insurance plan, contact your health care provider(s) (e.g., primary care physician, specialists, therapists, facilities, etc.) to verify if they are in-network with the state-sponsored health insurance plans you are considering, or search for your provider(s) on each health insurance plan’s Find a Doctor tool. Review prescription drug formularies to determine tier placement of current medications, if covered. Be aware of prior authorization or other requirements and work with prescribers to help avoid disruption when the new plan coverage begins January 1. Prescription drug formularies are subject to change and should be reviewed during BOE prior to making elections for 2025.
