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Act Fast for Three Benefit Programs
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Employees have until Wednesday, Dec. 15, to make decisions about three benefit-related programs.
Dental open enrollment . Several changes have been made to the plan, and now is the time to consider changing from one option to another, adding to or deleting family members, or terminating coverage all together. Effective Jan. 1, new employees may enroll only within 31 days of the date of employment and may not make any changes until the following open enrollment period. If an employee does not elect dental coverage at the time of hire, she or he must wait until the next open enrollment period.
Flexible spending plan. This plan is designed to allow employees to pay medical and dental expenses that are not otherwise covered by insurance on a pre-tax basis. While employees still have to pay the expense, saving federal, state and FICA taxes can reduce the burden considerably. Employees currently employed in the plan must re-enroll for the 2000 calendar year.
Dependent care benefit plan. This spending account lets an employee pay for eligible dependent expenses with contributions taken from pay before taxes are withheld. Employees may elect any amount of benefit up to the legal limit of $5,000 per year. Like in the flexible spending plan, tax regulations require that any unused benefit at the end of the processing time for the plan be forfeited.
For more information about these three programs, including the necessary enrollment forms, visit the benefits web site.
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