Preparing for Open Enrollment
Open enrollment is the one window each year when your employees make decisions that affect their coverage, their paycheck, and their family’s care for the next twelve months. For most small funeral homes, it arrives in a rush, gets handled in a week, and doesn’t get thought about again until the next one.
If your plan year starts January 1, now is the moment to begin. Working backward from a January renewal puts the start of your preparation window in early October, which means the decisions you make over the next few weeks will shape how the whole process goes. Here’s what to have in place.
Start Earlier Than Feels Necessary
For a January 1 plan year, your open enrollment window typically falls in November. Working backward from there, you want your renewal terms in hand and your decisions made well before you communicate anything to employees.
The practical benchmark is roughly 90 days out, which for a January renewal means early October. That gives you time to review your renewal, evaluate whether your current structure still fits, make a change if one is warranted, and still have several weeks to communicate clearly to your staff before they have to make elections. Employers who start 30 days out end up making rushed decisions and handing employees a packet they don’t have time to read. If you’re reading this in September, you’re right on schedule to start.
Know What Changed Before Your Employees Ask
Nothing undermines confidence faster than an owner who can’t answer basic questions about the plan they’re offering. Before you announce anything, be clear on a short list of specifics:
- What the premium is this year versus last year, for each coverage tier.
- What the employee’s share will be per pay period.
- Whether deductibles, copays, or out-of-pocket maximums changed.
- Whether the network changed, and if so, whether any commonly used local providers are affected.
- Whether any plan options were added or removed.
That doesn’t mean you don’t need to be a benefits expert, but you should be able to answer these five questions without hedging, or know exactly who your employees should call if they need more detail.
Communicate Cost the Right Way
The single most common mistake at open enrollment is presenting employees with only their payroll deduction. An employee who sees a number come out of their paycheck has no context for what the business is contributing on their behalf, and no way to judge whether their benefits are generous or thin.
Show the full premium, the employer’s share, and the employee’s share side by side. This costs nothing and consistently changes how employees perceive their benefits. It also makes a rate increase easier to absorb, because employees can see that the business is carrying an increase too, rather than assuming the cost was passed entirely to them.
Give People Enough Time and a Real Point of Contact
A two-week enrollment window with a packet dropped in a mailbox rarely serves employees well. Those with families have to coordinate decisions at home, sometimes against a spouse’s plan options, and that takes more than a few days.
Aim for at least three weeks, and make sure someone is available to answer questions during that window. In a small funeral home, that’s often the owner or office manager. If your benefits advisor offers employee support, use it. Questions that go unanswered turn into employees defaulting to whatever they had last year, or declining coverage entirely, neither of which is usually the right outcome for them or for your participation rates.
Watch for the Signals in Your Enrollment Data
Open enrollment produces useful information if you pay attention to it. Track who enrolls, who declines, and who changes tiers. A few patterns are worth noting:
- Employees declining coverage they previously carried is usually a cost signal, not a preference signal.
- Multiple employees dropping from family to employee-only coverage suggests dependent premiums have crossed an affordability line.
- Low uptake on a richer plan option may mean the price gap between tiers is too wide, or that the difference was never explained clearly.
None of this requires software or a formal analysis. It requires writing down what happened and comparing it to last year.
Use the Window to Reset, Not Just Renew
Open enrollment is also the natural moment to ask whether the plan itself is still the right one. Most small employers renew by default because the deadline arrives and changing feels risky. But if your rate has climbed for several consecutive years, or your headcount has shifted, or you’ve never looked at what’s available beyond your current carrier, this is the year to look.
For NYSFDA members, that includes the association health plan available through Bona Vita Benefits, which pools participating funeral homes together as a larger group. Plan availability, pricing, and eligibility depend on underwriting and your group’s specific circumstances. If you haven’t compared it against your current coverage, open enrollment planning is the right time to do it.
A Simple Timeline
If you want a rough schedule to work from, this covers most small employers:
- 90 days out: request renewal terms and review your options, including whether a different structure fits better.
- 60 days out: finalize your plan selection and contribution levels for the coming year.
- 45 days out: prepare your communication materials showing full cost, employer share, and employee share.
- 30 days out: open the enrollment window and make someone available for questions.
- After close: record participation and note what changed from last year.
Open enrollment handled well takes pressure off you, gives your employees room to make good decisions, and produces information you can use at the next renewal. If you’d like help preparing for this year’s enrollment, or want to see how the NYSFDA plan compares to your current coverage, Bona Vita Benefits is glad to walk through it with you. There’s no obligation, and with a January renewal there’s still time to make a change if one makes sense.
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