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Department of Human Resource Management
Office of State Health Benefits
July 17, 2026
Premium Rewards Documentation Required for OHB Assistance
The Office of Health Benefits (OHB) has received numerous inquiries to confirm the status of July 1, 2026, Premium Rewards for employees. Please review the following information, originally included in BA Memo #26-01:
New rewards earned for July 1, 2026, will be posted as reported by Anthem and Aetna. The Premium Reward can be found on “Simple Benefits” and “Create Additional Pay” in Cardinal HCM. If a premium reward shown in Cardinal is not reflected in the employee’s paycheck on or after July 16, contact your agency’s payroll office.
If you have an employee/non-Medicare retiree or covered spouse who has completed the requirements but is not receiving the Premium Rewards incentive, you may submit a request for assistance on behalf of the employee/retiree/spouse to ohb@dhrm.virginia.gov or fax to 804-371-0231. The confirmation of completion of the Health Assessment and the Explanation of Benefits for the annual preventive exam will be required as supporting documentation. Prior to sending a request to OHB, please review Cardinal to confirm that the Premium Rewards incentive has not been established.
All requests to OHB must include both the Health Assessment confirmation and the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from the health plan vendor for the annual preventive visit, well-adult or well-woman (gynecological) exam. As a reminder, diagnostic (medical) visits are not considered preventive and do not meet the requirement for the Premium Rewards.
Requests that do not include documentation confirming completion of both requirements cannot be processed and will be returned, further, delaying the employees’ Premium Rewards.
Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Error Requests
The most common clear and convincing Flexible Spending Account (FSA) error requests being received by OHB are:
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Enrolling in a Dependent Care FSA instead of a Health Care FSA when there are no qualifying individuals. It’s important for employees to remember that a Dependent Care FSA is for eligible dependent care expenses such as day care, after‑school care, and elder care of qualifying individuals and not for medical/health care expenses.
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Miscalculation of the FSA election amount. The FSA election is an annual election amount, not a per-pay election amount. When making an FSA election, employees must enter the annual election amount, not a per‑pay election amount.
For either type of FSA error, a corrected enrollment form must be completed and submitted to OHB along with the Agency Request for Assistance form and/or email.
Reminder About Supporting Documentation for Eligible Dependents Enrolled During Open Enrollment
As published in the eNews dated June 26, 2026, supporting documentation is required to enroll eligible dependents.
If the supporting documentation was not received by June 29, 2026, HR staff should have updated Cardinal to remove the dependent from the health benefits record and adjust the membership level, if applicable.
If supporting documentation is received by the agency after the June 29, 2026 deadline, HR staff should:
- submit an Agency Request for Assistance form and/or email to OHB along with the supporting documentation; and
- include a statement from the employee explaining the delay in submitting the required documentation
OHB will review the request and, if approved, will update the dependent’s coverage in Cardinal.
Please do not reply to this e-mail. You may send inquiries to the Office of Health Benefits mailbox at ohb@dhrm.virginia.gov.
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