Life Events

&
Moving to Advanced
Benefits
Suzanne Becker, Global HRMS SIG, March 2003
 Agenda

• Introduction
• Focus
• Life Events
• Enrollment Requirements
• Batch Processing in OAB
• Making the Move
• References
• Conclusion
 Introduction

• Principal Consultant with Xcelicor, Inc.

• 5+ Years experience with Oracle Advanced
Benefits
– As a Consultant and as a member of the Oracle Benefits
Development Team
• 5+ OAB Implementations
• Assists other OAB and OSB projects as a
Subject Matter Expert
• Taught OAB for Oracle University

Contact Information: SBecker@Xcelicor.com

 Focus

• Life Events

• Moving to Advanced Benefits

– Either from OSB or directly to OAB
– Why it makes sense to discuss together

• Expectations
– Audience has an understanding of Benefits in
11i
– This is not a first time look at Benefits
 Life Events

• Definition of a Life event

– Any change to a person which impacts
participation in benefits

• User Defined Events

– Section 125
– “General Benefits Administration”

• Seeded Life Events

– System defined events in OAB
 User Defined Life Events

Examples:
– New Hire
– Marriage
– Gain Child
– Child Gains Eligibility
– Dependent Loss of Eligibility/Coverage
– Divorce/Separation
– Spouse Benefits Status Change
– Termination
– Rehire
– Payroll Change
– “Element Link” Change
• Need life event for any element linking
– …
 How Many Do We Need?

• Perhaps not as many as you originally think!

• If possible, determine your past life event

experience
– What events have you administered in the past with
OSB or legacy system?
• Start small and add more as details require
– A common mistake is to define too many events that
are not properly configured or even used
– May add more as you become confident with your
configuration skills
• Relationship to Eligibility Profiles
– Life Events to Eligibility Profiles about 2:1
• The life event that makes you eligible
• The event that makes you ineligible
 Seeded Life Events

• Unrestricted
– Not restricted by an Enrollment Period
• Scheduled
– Open
– Administrative
– Compensation (CWB)
• Temporal Events
– Length of Service Changed
– Compensation Changes
– Waiting Period Satisfied
– Etc.
• Others
– Added During Enrollment (SSBEN)

• Just because they are there, doesn't mean you need

to use them
– Do not change seeded life events
 Some Properties of Life Events

• Triggers
– Person Changes in HR/Payroll data
• Manual Events
– No triggers
• Timeliness
– Void Potential Event if Prior to Current Calendar Year
• Occurred Date Determination
– Most use default “as event occurred”- leave blank
– Termination Event Date is usually day after Date of
Term
• Life Event Evaluation Rules
– Void potential event if “match FF rule”
Life Event Properties
 Life Event Collapsing

• ANDs and ORs

– New Hire = New Hire AND Category Change
AND Address Change
– Marriage = Add Spouse AND Marital Status to M

• Use “trickle down” method to capture more Ors

– Simplifies collapsing set up

• How many days to use?

– same day 0
– Within the period - “30 days”

• Collapsing Rules for Life Events will Evolve!

– Create as you do Life Event Testing
– There may be a person’s scenario that you have not thought
of - not a failure
• manually administer and void
the unnecessary events
 Life Event Collisions

• Collisions occur when enrollment

windows/periods overlap

• A Colliding life event will Back Out the prior event

• Have procedures in place to handle collisions

– Use collapsing definitions
– Volume could be low outside of Open Enrollment
– Do not need to automate everything
 Life Event Statuses

• Actual Life Events

– Started
– Processed
– Backed Out
– Voided

• Potential Life Events

– Detected
• Triggered by the System
– Unprocessed
• Manually triggered
• Or backed out
– Manual
– Voided
– Processed
• Became an Actual Life Event
View Person Life Events Form
View Person Life Events Form
 Electability

• Electability – the enrollment choices

– Determines whether an employee is allowed
to enroll in a plan for which they satisfy the
eligibility criteria
– Enroll/De-enroll
– Changes to dependents
• OSB
– Administrator determines Electability

• OAB
– Life Events determines Electability
– Administrator determines
for certain manual events
 Enrollment Requirements

• Build a chart of the life events you want with

enrollment periods, coverage and rate start and
end changes, electability and defaults
– This will help with your configuration of
enrollment requirements
• Program Enrollment Requirements
– Program, Plan Types, and Plans
• Plan Enrollment
– Plans and Options
• Must have the life event associated on enrollment
requirements in order for it to apply to the
program or plan
 Enrollment Requirements

• Timing Tab
– When can changes be made for this event?
– Default Date
• Should be On or Before the Close of the enrollment period or
before coverage starts
– Close Enrollment Code
– Coverage and Rates Start/End
– Period of Enrollment
• “Doing the Restricting”

• Life Event Tab

– What changes/elections can be made?
– Enrollment Code
• I.e. Divorce event, Lose Only “EE + Spouse” option
– Default Code

• Dependent Designation Tab

– What changes to dependents can I make?
 Life Event Eligibility

• Defined on the Program or Plan definition forms

with Eligibility profiles
• Life Event Eligibility/Ineligibility is determined
before regular eligibility profiles in Participation
process
• Can be used to override waiting periods by event,
etc.
• Best used to immediately remove enrollments for
ineligibles
– Termination
– Retirement
• Not a required configuration
 Testing Life Events

• Test using the Participation Process in batch

– Log file lists eligibility and electable choices
created

• Use View Person Life Event form to review details

for electable choices
– Enrollment window
– Default date
– Electable and Default choices

• Open Enrollment
– Open is a Special life event and should be part
of each test plan
 Testing Your Life Events

• Use your chart from setup of enrollment

requirements
• Each Life Event is relative to the previous and
following event
– Always do “String” tests
– New Hire to Marriage to Gain Child to Open to
Termination to Rehire, etc.
• Chart dates/codes out on a timeline
– Easiest to see
• Test for Gaps and Overlaps in Coverage and
Rates
– Can occur if codes are not properly defined
 Life Event Management

Some Suggestions for Reporting

– Make scripts to track life events
• Potential Life Events
– Important to track and process in a timely
manner
– Particularly during OPEN enrollment
• Life Events in Started status
• All Processed Life events – for experience
history
• Can easily add SQL+ to Concurrent
Manager for functional team to execute
• System Extract can be used to list started life
events, but not potentials
• Family Pack E will contain a new
Life Events report
 Batch Processing with Life Events
• What the Participation Process does:
– Life event detection
– Determines life event to process
– Determines eligibility to participate
– Determines electable choices
– Determines changes to enrollment results
• Participation Process Modes
– Life Event
– Scheduled
– Temporal
• If have derived factors for eligibility/events
– Selection Mode
• for Eligibility like OSB Maintain Participant Eligibility
• Default Enrollment Process
– Saves enrollments and applies any defaults
• Close Enrollment Process
– Calls Default Process
– Sets event status to processed
 Batch Process Parameters

• If more than one Program

– May want to use Program
• If have Payroll Eligibility
– Use Payroll parameter
i.e. if Student Payroll not eligible, may run
them separately to have “accurate”
count of eligible life events
• Use Person Type parameter to speed selection
• Person Selection Rule
– For more detailed restrictions
 Batch Process Scheduling

• Some Suggestions for Scheduling

– Daily
• Temporal Mode
– if have derived factors that change during the year
• Life Event Mode
– Only looks at people with a potential event
• Default Enrollments
– Only looks at started events if elections not yet
made by Default date
• Close Enrollments
– Closes life event on or after Close Enrollment date
– Periodically
• Maintain Designee Eligibility
– Evaluates covered dependent eligibility and will
end coverage if no longer eligible
 Backing Out of Life Events

• Via Life event form or batch

• Should be handled by knowledgeable
administrators
• Can happen with life event collisions
• Modes for Back Out
– Void – ignore in the future, use if setup changes
– Unprocessed – allow reprocessing
– Manual
• The enrollment period/window may move if an
event was backed out then reprocessed
– Will not effect coverage or rate start dates
Benefits Service Center Form
 Benefits Service Center Form

• On Line Processing
– Administrator can process potential life events
– Will be a minimum of events, most will be detected and
started with a Daily scheduling of the Participation
process – Life Event mode
• Responsibilities
– Global Super HRMS Manager (HR+ OAB + Payroll)
– Global Benefits Manager (HR + OAB)
– US Super HRMS Manager
– US Benefits Manager
• An Administration form, not for Testing
– Do not use Ben. Svc. Center form for testing setups,
use batch process with log files for testing
 Steps to Move to OAB

• Can set up in advance, no “down time”

• Document all setups BEFORE build
• Life Events
– Keep triggers “unhooked” until cutover
• Program Enrollment Requirements
– Timing,
– Life Event and
– Dependent Designation Tabs
• If previously were using OSB
– Remove “Allows Unrestricted” Check boxes from
Program and Plan Enrollment Requirements
• Conduct User training
• Hook up Triggers and Away you go!
 SSBEN and Life Events

• Life Event Names are displayed to Employee

– Make the names meaningful to employees

• SSBEN Instruction Text can and should be

configured by Life event
– Except on Family Member page because that is
available prior to any life event evaluation

• May want some Life Event Evaluation Rules

– Not required
– Use SSBEN Instruction text
 How Long Does All this Take?

• It Depends!
– How complex do you want to be when you “go
Live” with Life Events?
– How well trained is your implementation
team?
– How complicated is your plan design?
– How quickly can decisions be made?
– Prepare/test Life Event management reports
– You can always add more life events later
• “Less can be More”
• Move to Life Events with OAB and
SSBEN
• Cut Over included an Administrative
Event
– To apply default enrollments and rates in new
plans
• Total time less than 3 months
– Design was not complicated
– Used about 15 life events
– Had OAB implementation experience
– Decisions were made quickly!
 Oracle References

Required Reading (available on Metalink):

• User Guide
– Managing Total Compensation Using Oracle HRMS
– On-Line Help

• Family Pack and Patch “Read Me”s

• Oracle White Papers from Metalink –

– Frequently Asked Questions About Implementing Oracle
HRMS R11i Benefits
– Converting Election Data to Oracle Standard and Advanced
Benefits in Release 11i
• Benefits Technical Reference Manual
• Benefits Fast Formula Guide
• Metalink Knowledge Base
 References cont’d

Recommended Training:

• Implementing Advanced Benefits

• Administering Advanced Benefits

• Technical Foundations for Advanced Benefits

 To Look Out For

• Recommend Family D+

• If using SSBEN, may need patch 2396582 (not

included in FAM D)
– SSBEN When going from OSB to OAB – Can make
changes without OAB life event
 Related Xcelicor Presentations

• OAB/OSB – Reduce Fast Formula Usage by

Optimizing Configuration
• Oracle AppsWorld – January 2003

• Implementation Considerations for OAB and OSB

• Global HRMS SIG – Spring 2002

• Conversions for OAB/OSB - Which Method is Best

for You?
• OAUG – May 2002

• Oracle Benefits - OSB or OAB - Which is Right for

You?
• OAUG – September 2001
 Conclusion

• Implementing Life Events with

Advanced Benefits can be complicated

• Take advantage of the resources

available

• Design considerations, analysis and

testing will dictate your level of success
 Questions and Answers

Contact: SBecker@Xcelicor.com