Your spouse or domestic partners, and children are considered eligible dependents. You can enroll your eligible dependents for medical, dental, legal, and optional life insurance coverage. They are also eligible for education benefits.

Domestic partners may be added to the plan as long as you meet eligibility requirements and have a valid Affidavit of Domestic Partnership on file in the Office of Human Resources.

Eligible children include your children, stepchildren, legally adopted children, children who have been placed with you for adoption, and children for whom you have been appointed legal guardian. In most cases, your dependent children are eligible until the end of the year in which they reach age 26.*

2019 Cost for medical coverage

Plan	Age Limitation
Disabled children who are incapable of supporting themselves due to a mental or physical disability (provided the disability occurred before the child reached age 26).
CareFirst, Kaiser Permanente, Delta Dental, VisionAccess, and Hyatt Legal MetLaw plan	From live birth to age 26 Any age if disabled*
Dependent life insurance	From live birth to age 26

How to enroll

Attend the new hire orientation to get an overview of the benefit plans and enrollment process in Workday. You must complete your benefits enrollment within 30 days of your start date.

For health, dental, vision (new starting January 2025), flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts (new starting January 2025 for those who choose the high deductible health plan), and legal plans, coverage begins on the first day of the month after you start. If your start date is the first of the month, your benefits will begin on that day.

Enrollment options

You may choose to enroll in the following benefits when you are hired.

Benefit enrollment options for new hires

Coverage	Plan options
Medical & prescription drug	CareFirst BlueChoice Advantage Plan PPO + Express Scripts NEW Starting January 2025 CareFirst High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) + Express Scripts Kaiser Permanente Signature Plan HMO + prescription
Dental	Delta Dental Basic Delta Dental Comprehensive
Vision	CareFirst Vision Basic CareFirst Vision Enhanced
Life	Optional life insurance
Accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D)	Voluntary Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) insurance
Legal	MetLife Legal Plans
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)	Health care spending account Dependent care spending account
Health Savings Account (HSA), only if the HDHP was selected as your medical plan

If you don't enroll

If you don't enroll within 30 days of your start date, you will not have medical, dental, vision, group legal, flexible spending accounts, optional life, or accidental death & dismemberment coverage, and you will not be abe to make changes to your coverage until the next open enrollment period unless you have a qualifying life event*.

You are enrolled automatically in the university-provided basic life insurance. Short term disability coverage begins at the start of contract for faculty and after six months of full-time service for staff. After one year of service, you will be covered by the university's long term disability plan and, if you have not yet enrolled, you will be enrolled automatically in the AU 403(b) retirement plan and your 1% contribution will be matched by 2% from the university.

*If you are declining enrollment for yourself or your dependents (including your spouse) because of other health insurance or group health plan coverage, you may be able to enroll yourself and your dependents in this plan if you or your dependents lose eligibility for that other coverage (or if the employer stops contributing toward you or your dependents’ other coverage). However, you must request enrollment within 30 days after your or your dependents’ other coverage ends (or after the employer stops contributing toward the other coverage).

2025 Open enrollment

November 4 - 18, 2024

How to enroll

Every year, American University holds its open enrollment, the one time a year that you can make changes to your benefit plans without a qualifying life event. 

How to make your 2025 benefit elections

1. Log into Workday and go to your Inbox.
2. Click the Inbox icon, then open the Open Enrollment Change message.
3. Select Let’s Get Started to go to the enrollment page.

You’ll see one of the following options:

• Manage: Update your elections.
• Enroll: You’re not currently enrolled but can enroll for 2025.
• View: Changes aren’t allowed for this benefit (e.g., core benefits like basic life insurance or benefits requiring vendor enrollment, like commuter benefits).

To add dependents:

1. Click Add New Dependent and enter as much information as possible (fields marked with an asterisk are required and must be completed).

2. Click Save.

After you’ve made your elections, click Review and Sign at the bottom of the screen. Review the summary, check "I Accept," and then click Submit and Done.

Enrollment options

During open enrollment you can add, change, or drop coverage to your medical, dental, vision, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), Health Savings Account (HSA), optional life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) insurance, and legal plan.

You must take action if you would like a health care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and/or a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DCFSA) each year as flexible spending accounts do not automatically rollover.

If you don't take action during open enrollment

If you are currently enrolled in AU benefits and do not make any changes, your current elections to medical, dental, vision, optional life, AD&D insurance, and the legal plan will rollover automatically. Your coverage will begin January 1 of the upcoming year.

Flexible Spending Accounts are the exception to open enrollment rollovers. You will need to make an open enrollment election for Health Care FSA or Dependent Care FSA during open enrollment if you would like to participate in the upcoming year.

You will not be able to make changes to your coverage until the next open enrollment period unless you have a qualifying life event*.

*If you are declining enrollment for yourself or your dependents (including your spouse) because of other health insurance or group health plan coverage, you may be able to enroll yourself and your dependents in this plan if you or your dependents lose eligibility for that other coverage (or if the employer stops contributing toward you or your dependents’ other coverage). If you have a qualifying event or HIPAA special enrollment and wish to change your benefits, you must submit supporting dated documentation and make your changes in Workday within 30 days of the event. The benefit change must be consistent with the event.

Making changes during the year

You can change your medical, dental, life insurance, and flexible spending account coverage during the year, according to IRS rules, only when you experience a qualifying life event, such as:

• Marriage, divorce, or legal separation
• Death of a spouse, domestic partner, or dependent
• Birth or adoption of a new dependent or gaining legal custody of a new dependent
• A change in a dependent's eligibility status
• Employment change for a spouse or domestic partner
• A change in your employment status or that of your spouse or domestic partner
• A change of your residence

You must make a coverage change due to a qualifying life event within 30 days of the event, and the election change must be consistent with the event*.

*If you are declining enrollment for yourself or your dependents (including your spouse) because of other health insurance or group health plan coverage, you may be able to enroll yourself and your dependents in this plan if you or your dependents lose eligibility for that other coverage (or if the employer stops contributing toward you or your dependents’ other coverage). If you have a qualifying event or HIPAA special enrollment and wish to change your benefits, you must submit supporting dated documentation and make your changes in Workday within 30 days of the event. The benefit change must be consistent with the event.