Life and Family Status Changes
Life or family changes sometimes require you to change your benefits outside of Open Enrollment.
Following IRS regulations, you can make changes to your benefits that are consistent with your life or family status change within 30 days of the date that the status change occurred. If you miss the 30-day enrollment period, you must wait until the next Open Enrollment to make changes.
In most cases, you may not change the benefit carrier or option (e.g., UPMC to Highmark or PPO Option 2 to PPO Option 1), but you may modify the level of your coverage (e.g., employee and spouse to family coverage).
Supporting documentation to verify a status change, such as a birth certificate, marriage certificate, or proof of new coverage, is required. Review Benefits for Dependents and the accepted dependent eligibility documentation [pdf]. View the Uploading Supporting Documents in Workday System Guide [pdf] for instructions.
If you experience a qualifying life or family status change, but do not yet have the required supporting documentation, please do not wait to request the change in Workday until you receive it. You can follow up and upload the documentation in Workday within 30 days of making the elections.
30-Day Deadline
You have 30 days from the event to request benefit changes in Workday. After electing the new benefits, you have 30 days to upload required documentation. This includes documentation to verify the status change and to verify newly added dependents.
Consistency Rule
The benefit changes you request must be consistent with your life or family status change. For example, if your spouse loses outside Medical/Rx coverage, you may add your spouse to your Medical/Rx plan, but you would not be able to drop Vision coverage.
Qualifying Life and Family Status Changes
- Marital/domestic partnership status changes (e.g., marriage or registration of partnership, death, divorce or termination of partnership)
- Employment status changes (e.g., part-time to full-time)
- Coverage from another source is gained or lost
- Dependent eligibility changes (e.g., birth or adoption, death, or dependent becomes ineligible for coverage)
- Significant change in cost or coverage of plan (as defined by the university)
- Relocation (e.g., domestic to international position change, spouse arriving from overseas)