Establishing Basic Parameters

To establish the basic parameters of a group benefit plan, use the Group Benefit Plans panel.

To establish the basic parameters:

1. Open the Group Benefit Plans panel and complete the following:
Use this option To define this
Benefit Plan ID A short description of a new or existing benefit plan
Plan Description A more detailed description of the benefit plan.

Plan Description (Spanish)

The plan description in Spanish.

Insurance Class The type of coverage the plan provides (for example, Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Long-Term Disability), This setting determines which panels open, what fields are available, and the calculation method the system uses to derive the premium for the benefit plan.
Payee ID The ID of the benefits provider that receives the deducted amounts. If you need to define a new payee for this benefit provider, open the Actions menu and select Payees.
Cost Basis

The cost basis associated with premiums and contribution amounts for the benefit plan.

Refer to this field when changing premium rates or assigning employee overrides.

Calculation Method How users enter the plan's coverage and premiums.

Companies may offer their employees a set amount of life insurance coverage and the option to buy more at the employee's expense. The manual premium calculation enables you to manually enter the employee's individual premium and contribution on the employee enrollment record. Manual premiums can also apply to some medical plans that do not have set premiums.

Auto Enroll

Whether the employee can waive the benefit during an enrollment. (PrismHR Benefits Enrollment only.) This option must be used with other settings in the system. See for more information.

Auto Enroll

One of the following options:

N (No): The employee has the option to waive coverage in the benefit plan.
Y (Yes): The employee automatically enrolls in the benefit plan and does not have the option to waive coverage.
Company Decision: The system determines the employee waive option based upon settings at the client level.

Section 125 Electable

Whether the benefit can be elected for flexible spending plans.

COBRA Electable

Whether the benefit plan can be elected for COBRA coverage.

State Continuation

Specify a ruling state or U.S. territory for state continuation of coverage or mini-COBRA offerings within the Benefit Plan. This field is for informational purposes only in PrismHR. PrismHR Marketplace partners use this data via PrismHR’s API for state continuation or mini-COBRA offerings through their services.

Note: If you set a state in the State Continuation field, we recommend also checking the COBRA Electable checkbox located directly above the State Continuation field. This ensures coordination with federal continuation, where applicable.

Carrier Eligibility Management

Set this flag if the service provider is responsible for updating carrier eligibility information such as enrollments, terms, coverage modifications, or other changes which may affect carrier eligibility. Once you flag the plans, you can use this information to create a report in Report Center showing a list of plans where the Carrier Eligibility Management checkbox is set.

High Deductible Plan

Whether the benefit plan has a high deductible that may entitle the employee to participate in a health savings account (HSA).

Single Coverage Gross Wages %

Whether the benefit plan is employee-only. When this option is selected, the employee contribution must be defined as a percentage of the employee's earnings when the employee contribution rules are set up in the Benefit Rules form.

This option must be enabled in System Parameters with the custom feature code SHOWSINGLEGROSSWAGE.

Allow Gross Wage % Contribution Method

Select this checkbox to set the Percent of Gross Wages as the employee contribution towards a medical plan (employee premium only). Clicking this checkbox will display the multivalued grid where you can enter an Effective Date along with a Percent of Gross Wages which will be used as a default setting.

Note: To select the Allow Gross Wage % Contribution Method checkbox please ensure that the following checkboxes have been unchecked:

Single Coverage Gross Wage %
Do NOT Include In ACA Reporting

Additionally, you can select this checkbox only if the Cost Basis field is set to either Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly. If it is set to Weekly, then a message stating This feature is not compatible with a Cost Basis of Weekly is displayed.

PEO Master Plan

Whether the Group Benefit Plan is of the PEO’s Master Benefit Plans.

Client Sponsored

Whether the benefit plan is client-sponsored.

Rate Groups For Premium Rates

Whether premium rates are maintained separately for each rate group.

Deduction and Bill Code

The Deduction and Bill Code is displayed in a tabular format that represents the billing or deduction this benefit plan uses.

This table has the following rows:

Deduction Code- Prepay benefit account numbers. If your organization does not require these prepay account numbers, these options do not display.
Deduction Code PrePay
125 Deduction Code
125 Deduction Code PrePay
Bill Code- The code that represents the billing this benefit plan uses. This setting controls the accounting and invoicing to the client for this benefit.
PrePay Bill Code

The table has the following columns for each of the Deduction or Bill Codes:

Code
Description
Deduction Type
Rebate Bill Code

Please note the following validations with regard to the display of different deduction and bill codes:

On the System Parameters form, under the Global Accounting section, for the Require Prepay Benefit Account No. field, if you select Yes or Setup from the drop-down lists displayed then the table displays a row for each of the following Deduction/Bill Code options:
Deduction Code
Deduction Code Prepay
125 Deduction Code
125 Deduction Code Prepay
Bill Code
Prepay Bill Code
On the System Parameters form, under the Global Accounting section, for the Require Prepay Benefit Account No. field, if you select No from the drop-down then the table displays a row for each of the following Deduction/Bill Code options:
Deduction Code
125 Deduction Code
Bill Code

Note: If you do not enter or select a Benefit Plan ID, then clicking any of the deduction or bill codes hyperlink in the table will display an error message stating, Benefit Plan ID is mandatory.

Domestic Partner Plan

An associated domestic partner plan (if any) to link to this plan. The system reports the domestic partner as a dependent. If your organization uses Benefits Enrollment, the domestic partner plan require that you set up a dependency.

Offer Type

Select the offer type that classifies the benefit plan according to offer type and assures that the plan displays in the correct form in enrollment workflows. (PrismHR Benefits Enrollment only.) The Offer Type field will only show the list of compatible options based on the selection made for the Insurance Class field on this form.

When you select Offer Type other than Voluntary, then the Insurance Class field will automatically be assigned to corresponding insurance class without any manual intervention.

Note:  The Offer Type field becomes a required field from the Q1 2025 quarterly release. So from now on, you will get a warning message when you enter a plan with a blank offer type in any of the following forms:

Enter a Benefit Plan ID on the Group Benefit Plans form which has a blank Offer Type.
Enter a Plan ID on the Benefit Plan Setup form which has a blank Offer Type.

Use the Offer Types Import Template on the Data Import Tool to update the Offer Types field for existing Benefit Plan IDs on the Group Benefit Plans form. If you try to modify any other field using this process, you will receive an error.

There are seven insurance classes that can be assigned to a Group Benefit Plan. The corresponding Offer Types are as follows:

Insurance Class: Medical

Medical (MED)
Accident Benefits (ACC)
Cancer Benefits (CAN)
Critical Illness (CRI)
Domestic Partner Medical (MDP)
Gap Insurance (GAP)
Identity Theft (IDT)
Telehealth (TEL)
Voluntary Benefits (VOL)
Voluntary Hospitalization (HOS)

Insurance Class: Dental

Dental (DEN)
Domestic Partner Dental (DDP)
Voluntary Benefits (VOL)

Insurance Class: Vision

Vision (VIS)
Domestic Partner Vision (VDP)
Voluntary Benefits (VOL)

Insurance Class: Life Insurance

Accidental Death and Dismemberment (ADD)
Basic Life Extra (BLX)
Critical Illness as Life (CRL)
Group Term Life (GTL)
Life Insurance - Basic (LIF)
Life Insurance - Basic - Child Only (LIC)
Life Insurance - Basic - Spouse Only (LIS)
Whole Life (WLI)

Insurance Class: Short-Term Disability

Additional STD (SDA)
Short Term Disability (STD)
Voluntary Benefits (VOL)

Insurance Class: Long-Term Disability

Additional LTD (LDA)
Long Term Disability (LTD)
Voluntary Benefits (VOL)

Insurance Class: Other

Ancillary (ANC)
Legal (LGL)
Pet Benefits (PET)
Voluntary Benefits (VOL)

Insurance Class: Bond

--Select One--

Note:

When no Insurance Class is available, the Offer Type dropdown lists --Select One-- as the only option.

For an existing Offer Type in PrismHR which is not compatible with the Insurance Class selected, PrismHR will now display the words (Not Valid) next to the Offer Type name. If you try to save a Group Benefit Plan record which has a non-compatible Offer Type, the following message displays:

Offer Type “XXXX” is not compatible with the current Insurance Class.

Select a compatible Offer Type from the dropdown or set this field to the default value of “--Select--”. Once you select a compatible Offer Type, the invalid Offer Type is removed from the dropdown list.

EDI File

Whether to include the group benefit plan in the EDI file feed.

Note: The system only uses this field for reporting/tracking purposes.

Termination Date

The date when this plan's coverage ends. After that date, no one can enroll in the plan.

2. Click Save to save the form.
3. Click Delete to delete the selected benefit plan.

When you delete a Benefit Plan which has enrollment records associated with it, then the system does not allow you to delete it, and there is an error message displayed on the screen stating This plan cannot be deleted. There are employees assigned to this benefit plan with enrollment history. Example: Employee Enrollment for Employee ID <ID of the Employee> and Effective Date <the effective date of the benefit plan> is displayed.

4. Click Cancelto clear this form at any time.

Different panels display based on the selected Insurance Class. Refer to the relevant panel descriptions for the plan you are editing.

Configuring Other Parameters
Listing States Where a Plan is Offered
Maintaining Plan Networks
Maintaining Carrier Codes
Configuring Web Enrollment Parameters
Maintaining Coverage Amounts
Defining Guaranteed Issue Limits
Associating Plan Types with a Plan
Identifying Corporate Credit and Debit Accounts
Setting Additional Options