Due to an error in Benefits 24/7 during open enrollment last fall, there was a four-day period where employees who had previously declined the employee-paid LTD benefit were allowed to elect employee-paid LTD coverage without submitting Evidence of Insurability (EOI) to Standard Insurance Company (the LTD administrator). When an employee has previously declined employee-paid LTD, they must submit EOI for approval if they choose to enroll later. 

How we fixed the error 

HCA has terminated the employee-paid LTD enrollments for 202 affected employees from 63 PEBB employers. We mailed these employees a letter today informing them that their employee-paid LTD was terminated due to the error. The letter includes an EOI form to submit to Standard if they wish to enroll in employee-paid LTD prospectively.  

What you need to know 

Since the coverage effective date for these erroneous enrollments was January 1, 2025, impacted employers have likely been invoiced/charged for the employee-paid LTD premium, which in turn would have resulted in deductions being taken from employee paychecks. Any applicable employee-paid LTD premium deductions should be returned to the employee using your normal payroll adjustment methods.  If the employee chooses to submit EOI for employee-paid LTD coverage, you and the employee will be notified of their approval/denial by a letter from Standard.  

If any of your employees were affected, there will be a file in your Benefits 24/7 Data Depot that will list the names of the affected employees. The Data Depot is a tile located on the BA dashboard in Benefits 24/7. If you do not see this file in your Data Depot, then you did not have any employees affected by this issue.  

PEBB Employer Groups only: The employee-paid LTD charges will be refunded on your invoice produced at the end of March for April 2025 coverage. 

What to do if your employees were affected by this issue 

Review your Data Depot tile to see if you have a file with your agency code titled “LTD Enroll Increase”. To access the Data Depot: 

• Log in to Benefits 24/7 as a BA.  

• Scroll down to the bottom of your administrative dashboard. 

• Locate the tile labeled Data Depot and click on it. 

• Download the file containing your organization’s impacted employees. 

If you have a file with affected employees, take steps to refund those employees for any employee-paid LTD premiums you may have deducted from them as of January 1, 2025. 

What to do if you get an EOI approval letter from Standard: 

• Review the file in your Data Depot to determine if the employee had requested to enroll in the 50% or 60% plan level. The approval letter from Standard will not tell you what coverage level (50% or 60%) the employee requested. 

• Confirm with the employee what coverage level they want to enroll in. 

• In Benefits 24/7, click the “Supplemental Benefits” tab, then check the appropriate employee paid LTD percent plan.  You will then be asked to enter the effective date of the change.  Enter the first of the month following the date noted on the approval letter from Standard.  Then click the green “submit changes” button. Coverage is not retroactive. 

How to contact the Outreach & Training unit 

Please send us a secure message through HCA Support or call us at 1-800-700-1555 if you need help resolving this issue. We are still experiencing a high volume of inquiries and will do our best to address your questions in the order they are received.