My Benefits Employer News February 2025

Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds sent this bulletin at 02/26/2025 10:00 AM CST

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February 26, 2025

In This Issue

Introduction
Preparing for My Insurance Benefits
System Benefits & Features
Future State Processes & Guidance
Policy Changes
New Employer Services Bureau Director
Resources
Talking Points and Communications for Staff/Members
Support

Introduction

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

Welcome to My Benefits Employer News, a monthly newsletter to keep you informed about ETF’s new insurance administration system. In this issue, information is relevant for all employers that offer ETF-administered insurance benefits. View previous issues.

Preparing for My Insurance Benefits

What You Need to Know About System Cutover Planning - Electronic Insurance Enrollment Freeze Dates Announced

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

As mentioned in the January 2025 My Benefits Employer News, before My Insurance Benefits (Benefitplace) goes live, there will be an electronic enrollment freeze on insurance changes. The freeze is a point in the cutover process where we pause transactions so the enrollment information can move from its present home in ETF’s current systems to its new home in My Insurance Benefits.

Remember, current member coverage will not be impacted. ETF will have backup plans in place to ensure new members can get needed services, like emergency room and prescription drugs.

Please make note of these important dates related to the electronic enrollment freeze on insurance changes:

The time and date of the insurance enrollment freeze is set to begin on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. (CDT) and last through July 1. Employers will stop submitting health insurance enrollments into the myETF Benefits System (MEBS) at this time.
Employers will stop sending the current paper applications and enrollment files to Delta for supplemental vision and dental insurance as of May 20. Employers will use a new enrollment form for Delta Supplemental Benefits beginning on May 20, which ETF will provide to you in advance of that date. This paper application will be used until My Insurance Benefits goes live. Once My Insurance Benefits is live, this same paper application will only be used in those rare instances when employees cannot use the system.
State Employers Only: There will also be updates to the pre-tax benefit program processes. We will share information with you on that next month

Employers will hold the enrollment and change documents until late June, when they will access My Insurance Benefits to enter enrollments and changes received during the freeze.

We will continue to share updates about what to expect regarding the enrollment freeze and cutover activity required from employers.

Spotlight on Training

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

Preparations continue for My Insurance Benefits training. Employer training will take place in May and June, close to the launch of the system so the new information is still fresh as your work begins.

Instruction will include live, virtual courses to support HR Administrators in normal day-to-day work with topics like:

Enrollments, Dependents and Documentation
Life Events, Career Changes, and Reporting
Billing and Payment
Information specific to Life and ICI

For employers who only offer life and ICI, look for specific, comprehensive course offerings tailored to your needs. Watch for more info in March! A detailed training calendar will be published this spring with course descriptions to help you enroll.

System Benefits & Features

My Insurance Benefits Offers Reports

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

My Insurance Benefits will provide several reports for employers. We’ve provided you a sample of two reports. Click on the thumbnail images to see a larger view of the reports. You will learn more about reporting during training.

Employee Benefit Summary Report: This report lists the member's personal profile information and current elections, such as selected plans, coverage levels and amounts, benefit effective dates, premium payment frequency, and in some cases, the employee share of total costs. Members will also have access to this report.

Employee Detail Report: This report includes everything on the Employee Benefit Summary Report plus the member's earnings amount and effective date, date of hire, employer costs per plan, and persons covered (name, relationship, date of birth, covered since date, and benefit effective dates). Members will not have access to this report.

Members to Use MyWisconsin ID for My Benefits Login

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

Employees will use MyWisconsin ID to log in to the secure My Benefits portal, gaining access to the My Insurance Benefits application once it is live. MyWisconsin ID is the State of Wisconsin’s identity solution that allows citizens the ability to securely access participating online state services and systems using a single user ID and password. MyWisconsin ID provides a variety of self-service resources to assist employees with their account access, as well as a telephone service desk.

Members should use a personal email address when setting up their account. This will ensure that they can access their benefits when they leave employment. It is also a best practice to have one account affiliated with one email address for use across all Wisconsin agencies. Emails that end in “wi.gov” or “wisconsin.gov” are not allowed.

My Insurance Benefits is designed for ETF members who are the benefit subscribers (employees and retirees). Family members, dependents (people covered under a subscriber’s insurance plans, such as a spouse, child, legal ward, adopted child, stepchild or grandchild) will not be allowed to interact with the system. Additionally, people in a power of attorney role will use paper processes, rather than My Insurance Benefits when interacting on a member’s behalf.

Future State Processes & Guidance

Which Employees Will Use My Insurance Benefits Beginning in July

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

When My Insurance Benefits goes live in July, new employees and those employees who experience a life event that allows them to change their insurance benefits outside of the annual open enrollment period will interact with My Insurance Benefits to enroll in, change or cancel all their ETF-administered insurance benefits except long-term care insurance. Examples of life events include having a baby, getting married or divorced. See the Life Events Guide for information on how life events are currently handled.

Also in July, all employees with ETF-administered insurance benefits may log in to view their benefits. A larger group of employees will interact with My Insurance Benefits during the open enrollment period later this year.

Policy Changes

Dependent Verification for Enrollments Reminder

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

When My Insurance Benefits is live, all new and existing members who add a dependent will be required to provide documentation to show that the dependent is eligible for coverage. HR Administrators (employers) will be responsible for verifying dependents and the supporting QLE (Qualifying Life Event) documentation within My Insurance Benefits.

This will be a significant change. To ease the transition, all existing dependents are considered verified. After My Insurance Benefits is live, all members will be required to provide documentation for new dependents. HR Administrators (employers) will verify the documentation before it is sent to ETF.

For more information on the current state, visit the Life Events Guide on the ETF website. This page will be updated with the My Insurance Benefits go live. You will learn about My Insurance Benefits document upload feature during training.

New Employer Services Bureau Director

Introducing ETF’s New Director Sara Regenauer

^{All Employers | All Benefits}

Sara joined the Employer Services Bureau as director in January 2025. She has more than 17 years of leadership and customer service experience, and a passion for helping people. In addition to serving at the local level as finance director / treasurer where she assisted with employer agent responsibilities, she most recently held the role of local government services bureau director at the Wisconsin Department of Revenue providing leadership, education, and support surrounding multiple, complex state programs. In her new role, Sara is responsible for partnering with school districts, local governments, and state agencies to ensure efficient and accurate benefits administration.

Resources

My Benefits Marketing Toolkit

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

Utilize these ready-to-use resources to help promote and drive adoption of the new My Benefits system among your employees. The My Benefits marketing toolkit includes materials such as handouts, posters, PowerPoint slides, and web banners for intranet sites and social media platforms.

The toolkit will grow as we approach the launch of the new system and include materials for different scenarios, such as new hires and life events.

View toolkit

Frequent Questions

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

Q: Will employees fill out beneficiary designations in My Insurance Benefits?

A: No, beneficiary updates will still need to be done on paper. Since life beneficiary follows WRS beneficiary, paper beneficiary forms will still be used.

Refresher on Key Terms

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

With the launch of a new system, it can be difficult to keep track of system and application names. We want to clear up any confusion about My Benefits—the new portals that employers and members will use to securely access ETF-administered benefits. To clarify:

My Benefits is the name of the overall system. This is the name you’ll see on the ETF website. There will be separate My Benefits portals for members and employers.

My Benefits for Member
- Members will create a MyWisconsin ID and password to log in to My Benefits.
- Once members login to My Benefits, there will be different applications for members, such as:
  - My Insurance Benefits (Benefitplace) – An application that will let members securely enroll in, change, or review their insurance benefits administered by ETF.
  - My Annual Statement of Benefits – An application coming later this year, that will let members access their annual statements dating back to 2012.

My Benefits for Employers
- Employers will login using multi-factor authentication with their IAM credentials.
- Once employers login to My Benefits, they will see these applications:
  - My Insurance Benefits (Benefitplace) – An application that will let employers manage insurance benefits administered by ETF. As an employer, you will be able to review and approve employee selections.
  - Employer Payment Application (EPA) – allows employers to securely submit payments to ETF.
  - Employer Transaction Application (ETA) – allows employers to send demographic data and benefit eligibility dates.

Talking Points and Communications for Staff/Members

^{All Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

Talking Points to Share with Your Staff:

ETF will launch a new online system for insurance called My Insurance Benefits, which allows 24/7 and secure access to benefits information.
Those who work with insurance benefits at your organization should review this My Benefits Employer News from ETF each month.
When My Insurance Benefits goes live, only the benefit subscriber will have access and be able to make changes in the system. Dependents will have an ETF Member ID but will not be able to access the system.

Support

ETF will continue to provide more detail on the above, communicate additional changes, and ensure you are prepared for the transition.

^{Local Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

If you need support related to My Insurance Benefits, please contact ETF’s employer liaisons at ETFSMBIASEmployerSetupQuestions@etf.wi.gov.

^{State Employers | All Insurance Benefits}

If you need support related to My Insurance Benefits, please contact the IAS Project Manager with whom you currently work.

The information in this publication represents the state of the Insurance Administration System Program at the time of this writing. This is an active program; therefore information is subject to change according to ongoing discovery and testing.

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