Enrolling In Your Benefits

New Employee Enrollment

As a new employee, you will receive a packet of information regarding your benefits options. You will have 30 days from the date your benefits become effective to contact the Penn Benefits Center at 1-888-PENN-BEN (1-888-736-6236) and make your benefits elections. Once you have registered for and received your PennKey and password, you can enroll for benefits online at Penn’s online benefits management site.

Online Benefits Enrollment

You can enroll for your benefits, make changes to your existing coverage, and view a summary of your benefits online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at Penn’s online benefits enrollment site. Please remember that not all of your benefits elections may be changed at any time—for example, certain elections may only be changed during Open Enrollment or the new employee enrollment period, or following an employment status or qualifying life event change. If you have questions about enrolling for your benefits online, you can contact the Penn Benefits Center at 1-888-PENN-BEN (1-888-736-6236).

Verifying Your Dependents’ Eligibility

When you make your benefits elections as a new employee, during Open Enrollment, or following a qualifying life event or a change in employment status, you may also have the opportunity to enroll any eligible dependents in your benefits plans. As of July 1, 2008, you will need to provide proof of eligibility when you add dependents to your benefits coverage. This process is simple and straightforward. Shortly after you enroll a dependent in your benefits, you will receive a letter at your home address from the Penn Benefits Center. This letter will ask you to submit specific documents demonstrating that your newly-enrolled dependent(s) are eligible to receive benefits coverage under Penn’s plan rules, and will explain how to do so. The types of documents that are acceptable vary based on your relationship to your dependent. A list of documents that can verify dependent eligibility is available here. For a complete list of the criteria that govern dependent eligibility, please see the relevant section of the Health and Welfare Summary Plan Description [PDF].

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment gives you the annual opportunity to make changes to your benefit elections. Open Enrollment generally is held in mid-April, and any changes made during this period become effective for the following Plan Year (July 1 – June 30). Detailed information about the 2009-2010 Open Enrollment period will be available on the Open Enrollment website in March 2010.

Qualifying Life Event Changes

A change in family status or a change in employment status may qualify as a qualifying life event change that allows for a benefit change outside of the annual enrollment period. Such events may include changes in marital status, a new child and leaving the University of Pennsylvania. Any changes to your benefits due to a qualifying life event must be initiated within 30 days of the event by notifying the Penn Benefits Center that an event has occurred. You can contact the Penn Benefits Center at 1-888-PENN-BEN (1-888-736-6236).