Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA) Open Enrollment

Alerus provides employees with access to educational and plan resources on our online Employee Resource Center.

Enrollment forms (if needed for internal use) and other employer plan resources can be downloaded from the Employer Resource Center.

ACTION ITEMS

Plan Design Changes
Due two months before plan year begins: If you desire to make changes to your plan design, submit the plan design changes in a request through the Employer Website – Requests>New Request.
LSA New Plan Year Form
Due one month before plan year begins: Complete the LSA New Plan Year Form found on the Employer Website under Tools>Resources and submit it through the Employer Website – Requests>New Request.
Beneficial Ownership Certification Form
Due one month before plan year begins: Complete the Beneficial Ownership Certification Form found on the Employer Website under Tools>Resources and submit it through the Employer Website – Requests>New Request.
Debit Card Copays
Due one month before plan year begins: If your plan is debit card enabled, complete the Debit Card Copay Template found on the Employer Website under Tools>Resources with your group health plan copays and submit it through the Employer Website – Requests>New Request.
Participant Enrollments
Due one month before plan year begins: Submit the new plan year participant enrollment information using one of the enrollment submission methods listed below.

LSA Plan Design Review

Review the LSA New Plan Year Form in the Tools>Resources section of the Employer Website. This form is also available to enrolled participants within the participant website under Tools & Support.

If there are any changes to your LSA plan design, contact Alerus through the Requests section of the Employer Website. Please contact us no later than two months before the start of your new plan year with any changes.

Once any changes are made to your plan design, Alerus will update your employer website with your new LSA New Plan Year Form with the updated plan design. This form is in Tools>Resources. Submit the form to Alerus through the Requests section of the Employer Website. Once this form is received, we will finalize your new plan year.

If the LSA New Plan Year Form is received after the submission deadline, a $500 mid-year plan change fee may apply.

If you have any plan design changes, your plan documents will need to be amended.

If Alerus writes your plan documents, we will make these amendments for you. Applicable document fees may apply. For reference, Alerus plan documents can be found under the Resources section of the Employer Website
If Alerus does not write your plan document, you will need to contact your plan document provider to ensure that any applicable plan document amendments are completed (if necessary).

Enrollment Submissions

Enrollment information can be submitted to Alerus:

ENROLLMENT FILE
File Feed: If you have a secure file feed established between your HRIS system and Alerus, the new plan year enrollments may be able to be submitted through this file feed. Connect with your HRIS team to coordinate sending this enrollment file to Alerus no later than one month before your plan year begins. Format your open enrollment file using the following file naming convention: “CompanyCode_PT_EN_DATE_OE”.

Employer File: You can upload an employer demographic/enrollment file through your Employer Website. Visit Importing Files for instructions on this process.
DIRECT ENROLLMENT ENTRY
You may enter your enrollments one at a time directly through the Employees section of your Employer Website. Visit Manual Enrollment Entry for instructions on this process.

Do not submit enrollment termination dates for active participants to Alerus as of the plan year’s end, either through file integration or the employer website. Doing so will cause issues with your benefit programs. Alerus automatically tracks the end of your plan year for claim eligibility.

New plan year participants who have not previously had Alerus access will not have online access until the first day of the plan year. For example, if you enter a new participant enrollment for January 1st in December, that participant will not be able to access their account until January 1st.

Beneficial Ownership Certification Form

You are required to complete the Beneficial Ownership Certification Form found in the Employer Website under Tools>Resources and submit it through the Employer Website – Requests>New Request no later than one month before the beginning of your plan year.

Alerus Health Benefits Card

Participants with a current Alerus Health Benefits card will keep the same card for the new plan year. New cards for those scheduled to expire will be mailed approximately 30-60 days before expiration.

Debit cards for new participants will be mailed according to when the new plan year enrollments are received.

Submit the Debit Card Copay Template to ensure your health plan copays are set up correctly on your debit cards.

Enrollment Verification

Enrollment verification is required to ensure accurate benefit enrollment. After the plan year enrollments have been processed, you are required to verify plan year enrollments by downloading a report through your Employer Website – Reports>New Report>Enrollment. Report parameters for this review are:

File Type: PDF or Excel
As Of: Current date
Plan Year: YYYY
Group By: Divisions
Include Detail
Check: “Include additional information”
Check: “Include coverage level”

Plan Upgrades to Consider

Participant/Dependent File Feed: Alerus can accept a file feed from your HRIS or payroll system to automatically send demographic, enrollment, dependent, or contribution benefit information to Alerus, eliminating the need to manually update participant information within our systems. Reach out to our team at health_benefits_client_support@alerus.com if you are interested in integrating a file feed with Alerus.
Claim Reimbursement Schedule: Alerus offers daily or weekly claims processing. If you would like to change your claim reimbursement schedule, contact Alerus at health_benefits_client_support@alerus.com.
Claim File Feed: Alerus accepts a claim file feed from your insurance carriers that will send claim information from your health plan to Alerus to either be automatically filed on the participant’s account or to automatically substantiate debit card transactions. Your insurance carrier may charge a fee to set up this file feed. If you are interested in setting up this claim file, contact Alerus at health_benefits_client_support@alerus.com.