| What is FlexElect? | What is FlexElect? | <p>The FlexElect Program is a voluntary tax savings program available to eligible State employees and allows employees to set aside part of their monthly wages in a reimbursement account to pay for certain medical and dependent care expenses. It is comprised of two options:</p><ol><li>Medical reimbursement accounts and dependent care reimbursement accounts.</li><li>Cash-in-lieu of state health and/or dental benefits (Cash Option), if the employees have other qualifying group coverage.</li>
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| Which employees are eligible for FlexElect? | Which employees are eligible for FlexElect? | <p>You are eligible upon hire for the Cash Option and reimbursement accounts if you meet one of the following conditions:</p><ul><li>You have a permanent appointment with a time base of half-time or more.<br><p>If you are in a limited-term (LT) or temporary authorized utilization (TAU) appointment position, you are only eligible if you have a mandatory right of return to a permanent position. Consolidated Benefit (CoBen) employees are eligible even if they have an LT or TAU appointment. You are also eligible if you have more than one appointment, as long as the combined time base is half-time or more.</p></li>
<li>You are maintaining qualifying group health coverage from another source for the Cash Option eligibility.</li></ul><p>If you are a Permanent Intermittent (PI) employee, to be eligible for the Cash Option benefit, you must work a minimum of 480 hours in a control period, or 960 hours within two control periods (PI cash is only paid for the first control period of any year you are enrolled).</p> |
| What are the benefits of enrolling in FlexElect? | What are the benefits of enrolling in FlexElect? | <p>Money you put into a FlexElect reimbursement account is not taxable, nor are the reimbursement payments. This means you can reduce your monthly taxable income by enrolling into a FlexElect account.
For your medical reimbursement account, you have an annual amount available to you from day one of the plan year for reimbursable medical expenses.</p><p>When you enroll into a FlexElect reimbursement account during open enrollment, your enrollment is effective the next tax year (January 1‒December 31) and you will have a tax savings for that plan year.</p>
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| Important considertaions regarding FlexElect participation | Important considertaions regarding FlexElect participation | <p>For the reimbursement accounts, if you do not use all the funds in the account by the end of the FlexElect grace period, they are forfeited. The final deadline to file claims is June 30 of the following calendar year.</p><p>A three year commitment for cash-in-lieu of your dental enrollment must be made. This means that you cannot voluntarily change your dental cash enrollment and re-enroll into a state-sponsored dental plan for three years. The only exception to the three-year commitment rule is if you lose your dental coverage from another source.</p> |
| How do I estimate my deduction amount? | How do I estimate my deduction amount? | <p>One way to estimate what you expect to spend during the following year is to add up what you spend on medical and/or dependent care services in the current year. Keep in mind, you can only claim expense in the plan year you are enrolled.</p> |
| What if I transfer to another bargaining unit? | What if I transfer to another bargaining unit? | <p>Your elections for the reimbursement accounts stay the same for the remainder of the plan year, unless you lose eligibility through a time base and tenure change.</p><p>Employees in bargaining unit (BU) 6 cannot elect the Cash Option benefit for dental. If you become a BU 6 employee, you will be required to terminate your dental cash option enrollment.</p> |
| How do I enroll in FlexElect? | How do I enroll in FlexElect? | <p>Obtain a FlexElect reimbursement form (STD. 701R) from your personnel office for reimbursement account enrollment. For FlexElect cash enrollment, obtain a cash enrollment form (STD. 701C).</p> |
| Where can I get more information on the FlexElect program? | Where can I get more information on the FlexElect program? | <p>You can obtain the FlexElect handbook from the <a title="publications page" href="/Pages/publications.aspx">publications page</a>.</p> |
