Benefits Administration
We have configured the required set ups for
Benefit management, however the bigger task in hand is to administer the
benefits. Usually the Benefits Administration is done by the HR team with a
team of dedicated members. The task in hand is to educate them about the
system, again providing them expertise to maintain the system. In this section,
we will be going through the most widely used set of transactions and learn
about various steps involved with them.
Basic Forms
Let's go through the important forms and
functions that are used in Benefits Administration. The most important and
basic form is the "Benefits Service Center". This form holds the
basic view only details of the Person's benefit. The details like:
- Important
Person and Assignment Data like, National Identifier, Employee Number,
Business Group, Location, Organization, and People form DFF etc.
- Address
- Life Event
Summary: Details on the Past, Current and Future Life Events with status.
- Person
types of the Person
- Benefit
Summary, indicating the different Compensation Objects and Person's
eligibility/ enrolment in those.
- A Details
button to tell more about the Hire Dates, Term Dates/ reasons and Leave of
Absences.
- Two
indicators telling about the Potential Life Events / Action items.
So, at a glance of this form, one can have a
complete understanding of the person's current status, his enrolments and Life
Events in place; however all these data are just “view only”. Let's go to other
forms that can be used for updating details. Let's go through the Forms once.
Function Name
|
Commonly used User Function
Name
|
Description
|
PERWSHRG-412
|
People Form
|
This is the link to the People Form. This is where the
Personal details are saved.
|
BENBENAS
|
Person Benefit Assignment Form
|
This is the link to the Person Benefits assignment
Form. This is where the Benefit Assignment details are saved.
|
BENPRBAL
|
Person Benefits Balances
|
The screen to view the Benefit Balances and their
values attached to the person
|
BENDISPL
|
Display Participation Info
|
Shows Person's Eligibility, Electability and Enrolment
as per Last Life Event. This is a view Only Screen, and helps in
Troubleshooting.
|
BENDSPLE
|
Person Life Events
|
Shows the Potential and Life Events of the Person.
Allows you to manage the Life Events related to one Person.
|
BENMNGLE
|
Process Life Events
|
Calls BENMNGLE. It Goes and Processes the latest Potential
Life event with Occurred date < session (Date Tracked) date.
|
BEN_OLLE
|
Start On Line Life Event Workflow
|
This shows us the status of the Life
Event Processing with the path it followed. It is currently not in
use though.
|
BENEFXEB
|
Flex Program Enrollment
|
With this screen we can make enrolments in Flex Program
for the Person.
|
BENENFEB
|
Non Flex Program Enrollment
|
With this screen we can make enrolments in Non-Flex
Program for the Person.
|
BENEMSEB
|
Miscellaneous Plan Enrollment
|
With this screen we can make enrolments in
Miscellaneous Plans for the Person.
|
BENESPEB
|
Savings Plan Enrollment
|
With this screen we can make enrolments in Saving Plans
for the Person.
|
BENEDSGB
|
Dependent/Beneficiary Designation
|
This form helps us to
designate Beneficiaries and Dependents in the Enrolled Plans.
|
BENDSPER
|
Person Enrollment Results
|
This screen helps us to check the Current enrolment of
the Participant, along with Rates, Coverage dates, Benefit Amounts etc.
|
BENEPRCM
|
Person Communications
|
This screen allows us to see the list of communications
triggered/ sent on the Person.
|
BENEEAIB
|
Person Enrollment Action Items
|
This screen opens up the list of Pending Action Items
for the Person.
|
BENPECRT
|
Person Enrollment Certifications
|
This screen opens up the list of Certifications for the
Person.
|
BENWATIF
|
Whatif Eligibility Analysis
|
This helps in analyzing the Eligibility and
Electability with a pseudo life event. Usually used to answer questions of
Participants saying, what if any data changes, what impacts will it
have on the eligibility.
|
BENEPCPD
|
Primary Care Provider
|
This screen can be used to enter the PCP details of a
person.
|
BENSCMOD
|
Process Open Enrollment
|
This one kicks off the Open Life Event for the Person.
|
BENPRTIN
|
Person Participation Info
|
This is the screen to see all the
Enrolment Opportunity details of the Person, like Eligibility,
Electability, rates etc along with an option to Override Eligibility.
|
BENEOPEH
|
Override Plan Enrollment
|
This screen is to override the enrolments and rates.
|
BENCQBNF
|
COBRA Qualified Beneficiaries
|
With this screen we can enter and maintain the COBRA QB
records of a Person.
|
BENCNTPT
|
Record Continuing Benefits Payments
|
This form allows us to track the Non-Payroll Payments.
The Payments that are usually done by Check/Cheques. COBRA Benefit Payments
are the best examples.
|
BENCRTOR
|
Court Order Form
|
This screen is to track the Court Orders attached to
the Person.
|
BENRMBRQ
|
Reimbursement Requests
|
This screen manages the Reimbursements related to the
Person.
|
All these screens might not be useful for
our benefit administrators; however a lot of them will. So Oracle gives us a
handle, through which we can keep the important forms handy. In "Benefits
Service Centre", we can add links to these screens and then use the
Service Centre as a one stop solution screen. We can access these screens from
the Desktop Activities button on the Benefit Service centre. To do so, we can
navigate to Online Activity Screen and add the required forms there. See Figure
6.48 – Service centre.
Responsibility: HRMS Manager
Navigation: Total Compensation -> General Definitions ->
Authentication Activities.
(Figure 6.48 – Service centre)
Steps: We can add in the sequences and then add the
Function Names from the List of Values. The User Function Name is free text. The
Best practice is to add a number suffix to the User Function Name. That helps us
use the number as a hot key for that function.
Now, let's go to details, we will go and
discuss the various processes one by one.
Triggering a Life Event
We are aware of the fact that, a Life event is
triggered either through a Data Change or a Derived Factor. Here Data can be of
any type, Personal, Employment, and Enrolment. So let's imagine a Person has a
data change, for example, Address Change; what exactly happens after that is
the discussion point here.
- As soon as
the data changes, the system looks for any Person changes/ Related Person
Changes that are attached to the address fields, If a Person changes in found,
it is evaluated.
- If the
Person change/ Related Person Change returns a Yes; system tries to find
the attached Life Event and adds it to the potential Life events of the
Person on which the change has occurred, considering the
"Occurred Date Determination" Field on Life Event Reasons
screen.
- Now, if we
open the Person Life Events screen, we will see the life
event inserted on the "Potential Life Event" tab, with
an Occurred date added there and a status as Detected.
- The
notified date tells us the date on which the data change was notified (the
actual system date, not the session/ date tracked date).
- So all
these happen automatically without any Manual Intervention.
Now, as we have the Life Event triggered,
let's see how the Processing takes place.
Processing a Life Event
Once the Life Event is triggered, the next
task on hand is to process it. Once the system goes live, the Processing of
life events becomes automatic, with a Concurrent request called
"Participation Process: Life Event". This event can be scheduled to
run every night, so that it can pick the detected and Unprocessed Life Events
and process them, if the Occurred date is < = the system date.
However, if we want to do it manually, then
how would we do it? Here are the steps:
- The Potential
event is present and the Occurred date < = the session/date
track date.
- Now, go
and click on Process Life Events form.
- The system
then goes and checks if more than one Life events are triggered as of the
same date, if none found, it goes to the next step, however if more than
one life events found, the system tries to resolve the conflict by looking
at the Override status, if one of them is found superior, it becomes the
winner Life events, and all others are voided. If the conflict is not
resolved by the override status, the system then looks for logic in the
Collapse Life Events screen. If a record found to give a resultant on the
triggered Life Events, the winner is decided, and all others are voided.
If there is still no resolvability, then the system makes all
the competitive Life Events Manual, and needs a user
intervention to declare the winner, as the system failed to do so.
- If the
winner life event is decided, then the valuation Rule attached to the same
is fired. The Evaluation rule might just change the occurred date or might
even insert another Life event in that place, voiding the former
one. If there is no Evaluation Rule, the system just continues with the
Life Event.
- The next
task it does is looking at the "Causes Related Person Life Event".
If there are any records found, the system goes and inserts the related
life event to all the dependents of the Person.
- Then the
system looks at the Person's life event history and figures out, if there
is any life event that should be backed out because this life event is
being run in the date prior to the occurred date of the former. If any
such Life events are found, they are backed out.
- Finally,
it should open up a summary page telling about the resultants of all the
actions just happened right now. It will tell us the winner event name,
the related Person and the triggered life events and also the backed out
Life events.
- The system
will expect a nod from us; to do the same we can just press "Commit
and Proceed".
- Then the
BENMNGLE does its job of evaluating eligibility, Electability, defaults,
Coverage, rates, Premium and Required Certifications.
- If there
is enrolment Opportunities and a valid window present, then the
Life Event goes to Started state, else the Life event is termed as
Processed.
- It then
looks for communication Types to see, if there is any Communication to be
sent.
- Finally a
summary page opens with the Enrolment window dates, automatic Benefits
listings and details of Dropped / Modified Comp Objects if any. Another
tab holds all the triggered communication types.
- We might
need to process some communication extracts in order to send the
Pre-Enrolment Literatures out to the participants.
Saving Elections
Now, once the Life event is started and the
enrolment period is open, we can go and make election for the Participant. In
an ideal case, the triggering and processing of life events should happen
automatically by data change and concurrent programs respectively. Once the LE
is in started state, the Person should get a communication, and he should log
in to the SSHR- Benefits application to make his elections; which we will be
discussing in details later in this chapter. However at present we are looking
in to the forms application, where a Benefits Administrator can go and make
elections on behalf of a Person. Let's go through the steps.
- Once the
LE is in started state.
- Go to the
Benefits Service centre for the Person.
- To check
the Electability, Defaults, Rates, Certifications and enrolment window, we
can go to "Person Life Events" Screen, and click on
"Enrolment Opportunity" button, highlighting the Life Event in
Concern.
- The
Electable choice button then leads us to the Choices and rates in the
highlighted Program; and the enrolment period is right at the bottom of
the screen.
- Now, time
to make elections. Make sure the current date falls between the Enrolment
windows; if needed, we can date track.
- Go to
Benefits elections screen, and we will be able to see all the Default
choices there, Grouped by Plan types, Sorted on sequences.
- Now, if we
click on any one of the rows, a LOV opens with all the electable choices
in that Plan type along with the benefit amount, rates (Communicated and
Defined), Certification etc.
- We can
make a choice out of the Electable choices and repeat the same for all
plan types. Once done, the elections can be saved.
- Then we
can click on the Designee button to validate existing designee
and designate new dependents. The Designate Dependents screen shows only
eligible dependent in the list, based on designation level, most
preferable PTIP level.
- Once the
Elections are made, then the Life Event can be closed manually, from
the "Person Life Events" Screen.
- To manage
the Life Event Closures manually, we can schedule the "Close
Enrolments Process" to close the Life Event windows. The code that
determines when to close the enrolment is based on the code we use in the
Timing Screen of "Program Enrolment Requirement".
Validating Enrolments &
Communications
Once the elections are saved, a participant's
election can be seen in "Enrolment Results" Screen. See Figure 6.49 – Enrolment Results. Here the
Enrolments are listed in the order of Plan types with details like:
(Figure 6.49 – Enrolment Results)
Plan and Option
|
Name of the Comp Object
|
Life Event
|
Life Event with which the enrolment was made
|
Enrolment level
|
The Level of the Comp Object - Plan Option or Plan
|
Plan Type
|
Name of the Plan Type
|
Enrolment Method
|
Explicit / Automatic / Default
|
Suspended / Interim
|
Whether it's a suspended / interim enrolment
|
No Longer Eligible
|
Used with Coverage view by past date, to show if any of
the enrolled plan (in Past) is not eligible anymore.
|
Override
|
To show if there are any overrides present with the
enrolment record.
|
Coverage
|
Lists the current Coverage dates, along with the
dates beginning which the Participant is enrolled in the Plan
without getting de-enrolled.
|
Benefit
|
Displays the Benefit Amount / Coverage Amount; along
with the Benefit Type.
|
Action Items
|
This button takes us to the list of action items and
Certifications (if any).
|
Care Providers
|
Shows the list of PCPs attached to the enrolment
|
Designee
|
Shows the designated Dependents listed under the
highlighted plan.
|
Excess Credits
|
This button shows the credit listings of the selected
Plan.
|
Rates
|
This is the screen to see all the Rates related details
of the Plan.
|
Now, let's go see the communications triggered
on the Person. To do so, we will have to go to "Person
Communications" screen on the Benefits service centre. See Figure 6.50 –
Person Communications. Here the Communication types are listed with the
following details:
(Figure 6.50 – Person Communications)
Type
|
Name of the Communication Type
|
Sequence
|
The instance of the Communication to the person, like,
1st, 2nd etc.
|
Inspect
|
Displays the Communication needs Inspection
|
Requested
|
This check box, if checked tells that the communication
is requested.
|
To be sent date
|
Tells the date on which this should be sent.
|
Sent Date
|
Tells the date on which the communication was actually
sent.
|
Can be requested until
|
The date until which the communication can be sent
|
Life Event Reason
|
The LE with which the communication was sent
|
Status
|
The status of the LE
|
Re Send Reason
|
A Reason that has to be entered in case we want the
communication to be sent again.
|
Re Send Instruction
|
Any instructions to be put while resending.
|
Address
|
The Address on which the communication is being sent.
|
Resend
|
The button to resend the communication. Used in cases
where the initial communication is not received / an updated one is
needed. This is where is the sequence is updated to the next number.
|
Triggers
|
The trigger with which the Communication was triggered.
|
Usages
|
The usage row with which the communication was
triggered.
|
Using SSHR for Benefits
SSHR or Self Service Human Resource is an
interface for the Participants to manage their HR related data online. SSHR can
be used to perform a lot of tasks, for products ranging from Payroll to Time
and Labor. We will talk about the Benefits system now.
The Personal and Employment related data can
be viewed and updated by the Person by SSHR, so if anything is changing here,
or by the HR department, the triggering of life event is taken care of. Again
the Benefits link enables the Participants to add/ remove Contacts online.
Responsibility: Employee Self-Service
Navigation: Benefits
- Once we
click on the Benefits link, the "Dependents and Beneficiary"
page opens.
- The
Add/Remove of Contacts can be done here.
- Once Next
is hit, the Participant sees the existing Benefits, and if the date falls
between any Enrolment window, the Participant gets a chance to update
his/her benefits.
The SSHR is an easy to use, user friendly
interface provided to the Employees, Ex-Employees and contacts to add and
maintain their personal and professional details, and Benefits as an
application is part of it. |