The annual benefits open enrollment period will take place from Monday, Nov. 17 through Thursday, Dec. 4. Personal Enrollment Guides, which summarize each recipient's current benefit coverage and provide instructions for making benefits elections, will be sent to all benefits-eligible employees through interdepartmental mail.
Employees do not need to do anything to maintain their current level of coverage for 2004, unless they want to participate in a Flexible Spending Account. Those who want to participate in a Flexible Spending Account in 2004 must re-enroll.
This year, employees will not have the option of making selections by phone. All benefits-eligible employees can now enroll online using Employee Self Service, a secure web service that can be used from home or at MIT.
Users may access Employee Self Service from the Benefits Office web site at http://web.mit.edu/hr/benefits, or go directly to http://web.mit.edu/sapwebss. All users must have an MIT web certificate and a supported web browser. Macintosh users must have Netscape 6.2.3 or higher. Supported browsers for Windows are Netscape 6.2.3 or higher, Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher (Windows 2000) and Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher (Windows XP).
Anyone who doesn't receive an enrollment guide by Nov. 12 or has questions on the open enrollment changes should e-mail openenroll04@mit.edu or call Benefits at 253-6151. Lincoln Laboratory employees should contact the Lincoln Benefits Office at (781) 981-7055. More information is also available on the Benefits Office web site.
Representatives from the health, dental and life insurance plans as well as Benefits Office staff will answer questions at several Benefits Fairs at the following times:
Campus--Thursday, Nov. 13 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Bush Room (10-150)
Haystack--Friday, Nov. 14 from 10-11 a.m. in Conference Room A
Bates--Friday, Nov. 14 from 2-3 p.m. in the cafeteria
Lincoln Lab--Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the auditorium.
Early retirees (those under age 65) will also receive Personal Enrollment Guides by this week. They will not need to do anything to maintain current levels of coverage for 2004.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 29, 2003.
