FSA Open Enrollment

Alerus provides employers and employees with access to a robust Resource Center to review information about benefits plans and view instructional and educational videos.

Enrollment forms (for external use only) can be downloaded from the Resources tab on the employer website. If you work with a benefits broker, they may prepare enrollment material for you. We recommend you coordinate with them to ensure all bases are covered and efforts are not duplicated.

ACTION ITEMS

  1. Distribute educational materials to FSA-eligible employees.
  2. Contact Alerus through the Requests tab on the employer website if you wish to make changes to your FSA plan design (add options, change limit, add cards, etc.).
  3. Submit your new plan year paycheck dates through the Requests tab no later than one month prior to the start of your new plan year.
  4. Submit your Debit Card Co-pay Template through the Requests tab no later than one month prior to the start of your new plan year.
  5. Submit your new plan year enrollments no later than one month prior to the start of the new plan year to ensure debit cards are delivered by the start of the plan year.

Things to Consider

  • Demographic File Feeds. Alerus can accept demographic/enrollment and/or contribution weekly file feeds, eliminating the need to manually update participant demographic/enrollment/contribution information. We can also accept feeds from your payroll vendor (if applicable). For more information, review Importing Files.
  • Reimbursement Schedule. Alerus offers daily or weekly claims processing and there is no cost involved to make changes to your reimbursement schedule. Contact Alerus through the Requests tab of the employer website for more information.
  • Carryover Feature. If your plan does NOT already offer this feature, please contact Alerus right away if you are interested in adding it to your plan. This feature can only be added prior to the start of your new plan year. Once you contact us, we will make communication material available under the Resources tab to share with your employees regarding the carryover feature, update our system to manage the carryover, and update your plan document. Applicable fees may apply for plan document updates.

Employee Educational Material

Employee educational materials should be made available to all FSA-eligible employees so they can make informed decisions about participating in FSA benefits in the new plan year. All employee educational material can be found in the Resource Center FSA section.

Plan Limits

HEALTH FSA/LIMITED PURPOSE AND DEPENDENT CARE

The Health FSA and Limited Purpose FSA maximum annual elections for 2023 are $3,050. The Health FSA and Limited Purpose FSA maximum carryover from plan years ending in 2022 into plan years ending in 2023 is $570. The Health FSA and Limited Purpose FSA maximum carryover from plan years ending in 2023 into plan years ending in 2024 is $610. The Dependent Care FSA maximum annual election for 2023 is $5,000.

 

PARKING/TRANSIT (only applicable if your plan offers these benefits)

The maximum election amounts for the Parking/Transit benefits for 2023 is $300 per month.

Carryover

  • If your plan currently allows carryover funds for the Health FSA, Limited Purpose, Parking or Transit benefits these funds will automatically carryover on the first day of the new plan year. If your plan only allows carryover of funds if a participant has made an election into the new plan year, please make sure these elections are entered no later than 10 days prior to the end of the current plan year. Please contact Alerus for any elections entered after the first day of the plan year as any unused funds from prior plan year will need to be manually rolled over.
  • If your plan does NOT already offer this feature, please contact Alerus right away if you are interested in adding it to your plan. This feature can only be added prior to the start of your new plan year. Once you contact us, we will make communication material available under the Resources tab to share with your employees regarding the carryover feature, update our system to manage the carryover, and update your plan document. Applicable fees may apply for plan document updates.

Alerus Health Benefits Card

Plans With Debit Cards

Participants who currently have an Alerus Health Benefits Card will keep the same card for the new plan year. If cards are scheduled to expire, participants will receive new cards in the mail approximately 30-55 days prior to the expiration date.

Employees not interested in using the debit card can contact the Client Service Center to close their card and can then destroy the cards mailed to them.

To ensure new participant debit cards are in hand by the start of your new plan year, enrollments must be completed no later than one month prior to the start of your new plan year.

Debit Card Co-pays

Purchases made with the Alerus Health Benefits Card that are for co-pays can be set up to automatically adjudicate, and participants would not be required to submit documentation for those purchases. Please provide us with your company co-pays for the below expenses to get them set up for 2023 debit card transactions. Use the Debit Card Co-pay Template (also available under the Resources tab of the employer website) and submit the completed template to Alerus through the Requests tab of the employer website.

  • Office Visit Co-pays
  • Pharmacy Co-pays
  • Dental Co-pays
  • Vision Co-pays

Debit Card Insurance Carrier File Feeds

For health FSA and limited purpose combined, if you have 250 or more enrolled participants you can set up an insurance feed that will help eliminate approximately 90% of debit card transactions flagged for adjudications. These file feeds can only be set up before the start of a new plan year. Feeds can be set up for your health insurance, dental, vision, or prescriptions providers (where appliable). Alerus does not charge a fee to set up these feeds (custom file formats may be subject to additional fees), however, your insurance provider may charge a fee to set up the feed. Feed set-up times vary depending on the insurance carrier’s response but generally take 8-12 weeks to complete. If you are interested, please contact Alerus right away to start this process.

Plans Without Debit Cards

Alerus offers the Alerus Health Benefits Card as an optional service with Health FSA/Limited Purpose benefits. The Health Benefits Card allows participants to pay for healthcare expenses directly from their FSA, without having to wait for reimbursement. The card can only be used at merchants that provide healthcare services, such as pharmacies and clinics, and will not work at non-healthcare establishments. In some cases, participants will still be required to submit itemized documentation for their card purchases, however, the wait for reimbursement is eliminated.

Please contact Alerus right away if you are interested in offering the Alerus Health Benefits Card for your new plan year. We can provide you with cost information and explain the steps to be taken in advance of open enrollment.

Payroll Dates

To ensure accuracy for contribution posting, submit your new plan year paycheck dates through the Requests tab no later than one month prior to the start of your new plan year.

Parking/Transit (If your plan offers Parking/Transit benefits)

Please review your Plan Design Checklist in the employer website under Tools>Resources, and return the completed and executed checklist to Alerus.

FSA and HRA Benefits

If Alerus administers your FSA and HRA benefits, please submit any changes to your new HRA plan year to Alerus one month prior to the start of your new plan year. If we have not received any changes prior to one month before the start of your new plan year, we cannot guarantee new enrollees’ debit cards (where applicable) in hand by the start of your plan year.

Plan Document Updates

If you have any changes to your plan design, your plan document will need to be updated to reflect accordingly. Please notify Alerus of any plan design changes as soon as possible. If Alerus administers your plan document, the document will be updated to reflect any changes to your new plan year. Applicable fees may apply.

If Alerus provided your Section 125 plan document, these can be found under the Resources tab on the employer website.  Participants can view the plan document under the Tools & Support tab within the participant site.

Some Things To Keep In Mind

  • To offer a health FSA benefit, you must have a group medical plan in place.
  • Participants cannot have a health FSA benefit if they or their spouse are making or receiving health savings account (HSA) contributions in the same tax year.

Enrollment Submissions

TIP: Future NEW plan year enrollments will not have online access until the first day of the plan year has occurred. For example in December you are entering a NEW participant enrollment for plan year 01.01.24 – 12.31.24. Participants will not be able to create their online access until 01.01.24.

Manual Entry: You have the option to manually enter your employees’ new FSA elections on Alerus’ employer website. Visit Manual Enrollment Entry for instructions.

Upload: Upload your FSA Enrollment Template through the employer website. Visit Importing Files for instructions.

Key Items to Know

  • The enrollment materials are for FSA benefits only. For any HSA enrollment questions, please contact your HSA administrator.
  • Election, Reimbursement, and Status Change/Termination forms can be found under the Resources tab of the employer website.
  • If your scheduled reimbursement date falls on a holiday, it will process the following business day and the reimbursements will appear on your next regularly scheduled payment report.
  • If you are not renewing your FSA benefits with Alerus, please let us know 2 1/2 months before plan year end, to ensure expired debit cards are not reissued.
  • NEW in 2022. By linking your FSA/HSA employer website with your COBRA website, you can have seamless navigation between the two platforms. Contact Alerus to learn how.
  • FSA benefits do not automatically carryover; a participant must make an election each year.

Data Integration

  • Do not submit enrollment termination dates to Alerus as of the end of the plan year for active participants, either through your file integration or through the employer website. Doing so will cause issues with your benefit program. Alerus automatically tracks the end of your plan year for claim eligibility.
  • If you have file integration with Alerus, and are submitting an open enrollment file, please format your open enrollment file using the following file naming convention: “CompanyCode_PT_EN_DATE_OE”.

 

If you are interested in setting up data integration between your vendor and Alerus, submit a request through the Alerus Employer Website.

  1. Log into Employer Access.
  2. Select Requests from the left side menu, then click New Request.
  3. From the dropdown, choose Other and click Next.
  4. Enter Request Details:
    • Name of Vendor
    • Vendor Contact Name
    • Vendor Contact Email
    • Type of File Feeds: Demographic, Enrollment, and/or Contribution (Payroll)
  5. Click Submit. You will receive a confirmation email when the information has been received.