Qualifying Life Events

The elections you make are for the entire calendar year and generally cannot be changed outside of the Open Enrollment period. However, if you have a Qualified Life Event as defined by the IRS, you will be able to make benefit changes that are consistent with your life event.

Qualified Life Events include:

• Marriage, divorce or newly eligible same or opposite sex domestic partner
• Birth or adoption of a child
• Death of your spouse/same or opposite sex domestic partner or dependent child
• A dependent becoming ineligible for coverage
  
• Your spouse/same or opposite sex domestic partner gaining or losing coverage at his/her job
• You transferring between full-time and part-time status
• You moving from a non-benefit eligible position to a benefit eligible position

Benefit changes must be consistent with your event. For example, if you have a baby, you may add the baby to your medical coverage. You cannot, however, drop dental coverage for other family members at this time.


Steps to make a mid-year change due to a Qualifying Life Event:
You must complete the steps below within 30 calendar days of the Qualified Life Event to make changes to your benefit elections:

1.Go online to www.benedetails.gwu.edu and enter your online enrollment by choosing the life event that occurred.
2. Provide supporting documentation of the life event with in 30 calendar days of the life event to benefits@gwu.edu.

Effective date of changes:
Most changes are effective for life events the first of the month following receipt of supporting documentation*.

For example, lets say you get married on September 15; you have 30 calendar days from September 15 to enter your enrollment online requesting to add your new spouse to your medical coverage. Here is a chart showing when your coverage will be effective based on when you send the benefits office a copy of the supporting documentation needed to approve this life event.  In this situation a copy of the marriage certificate is the supporting documentation that you will need to submit to the benefits office:

	If all required paperwork is received by:	The change will be effective on:
	30-Sep	1-Oct
	10-Oct	1-Nov
	17-Oct	You have missed the 30 calendar day deadline and may not add your spouse to your coverage period

*Please note for birth/adoptions the effective date of coverage is the date of birth or adoption.

Examples of Supporting Documentation:

Life Event	Supporting Documentation that needs to be submitted to the benefits office for review
Marriage	Copy of marriage certificate
Birth/Adoption	Copy of birth certificate or adoption papers
Loss or gain of coverage	Copy of documentation proving the date the coverage was lost or gained (example: Letter from employer or insurance company where coverage was lost or gained)
Newly eligible same or opposite sex domestic partner	Fill out the declaration of domestic partnership form located in the forms section on the benefits website and provide 3 required documents listed in the form

Useful Resources:
Click Here to View Rates & Contribution Information
Click Here to View Forms
Click Here to View Vendor Contact Information
Click Here to View FAQs

Click Here to Enroll Now