Find instructions to complete Open Enrollment on the HR website.

Review page 7 or 8 in the appropriate Open Enrollment guide to determine if you need to do anything during the Open Enrollment period:

• 2025 Faculty and Academic Staff Open Enrollment Benefits Guide
• 2025 Support Staff Open Enrollment Benefits Guide
• 2025 MSU Retiree Open Enrollment Benefits Guide
• 2025 Open Enrollment Benefits Guide for individuals in the following groups: Cash-for-Life, COBRA, Long-term Disability, One Year Paid Medical, Postdoctoral Fellows, Unpaid Leave of Absence, and Workers’ Compensation.

Most elections continue each year without the need to re-enroll. Exceptions include flexible spending accounts and the completion of the spouse/OEI affidavit for benefits-eligible employees (retirees do NOT need to complete the affidavit).

Review page 7 or 8 in the appropriate Open Enrollment guide to determine if you need to do anything during the Open Enrollment period:

• 2025 Faculty and Academic Staff Open Enrollment Benefits Guide
• 2025 Support Staff Open Enrollment Benefits Guide
• 2025 MSU Retiree Open Enrollment Benefits Guide
• 2025 Open Enrollment Benefits Guide for individuals in the following groups: Cash-for-Life, COBRA, Long-term Disability, One Year Paid Medical, Postdoctoral Fellows, Unpaid Leave of Absence, and Workers’ Compensation.

Completing Open Enrollment Online: After completing enrollment through the EBS Portal, you will receive an email confirmation statement. Review the confirmation statement to validate your plan elections are correct. If your elections look correct, you have completed Open Enrollment. If you would like to make any changes, you can go back through the Open Enrollment application in the EBS Portal through October 31 and review the confirmation statement received after making the desired changes.

Completing Open Enrollment via Email/Mail: If you were mailed an Open Enrollment guide and you submitted an enrollment/change form via email or mail, you can login to the EBS Portal, select My Benefits on the top navigation, click on Current Benefits Participation and preview your benefits confirmation statement to validate your plan elections. If your elections look correct, you have completed Open Enrollment. If you would like to make changes, you can submit a new enrollment form through October 31 and review the confirmation statement received after making the desired changes.

Note: Please allow 3–5 days for delivery of the U.S. mail. Once received by our HR Solutions Center, your enrollment elections will be completed within
7–10 business days. If you do not see your updated elections at that time, please contact our HR Solutions Center at SolutionsCenter@hr.msu.edu or
517-353-4434 (toll-free 800-353-4434) to verify receipt.

To complete enrollment through the EBS Portal, you must login with your MSU NetID and password and submit multi-factor authentication. Multi-factor authentication is used as a security measure to safeguard personal and institutional data. Since EBS holds personal information, to login it requires multi-factor authentication. If you have not set-up multi-factor authentication or need to register/manage your credentials, please go to the MSU IT website for more information.

The Spouse/OEI Affidavit is a form of documentation that states whether your spouse/OEI has access to health care coverage through their own current or former employer that is at or under an annual premium threshold. The premium threshold for the 2025 plan year is $1,500. This means if your spouse/OEI has access to single person coverage for $1,500 or less annually from their own employer, they must enroll in their own employer's health coverage.

You may still cover your spouse/OEI on your MSU health plan as a dependent, but the coverage through MSU will be considered secondary and their employer's coverage will be primary. This is done through a process called "coordination of benefits," which allows a person to be covered by two different health care plans. Learn more about coordination of benefits below. Please note that not all health plans coordinate, and you must reach out to each health care vendor to confirm coordination.

When a person is covered by more than one health care plan - such as through their own employer and also their spouse/OEI's employer - insurance companies need to determine how the covered medical services or prescriptions will be paid. Insurers typically use a process called "coordination of benefits" to decide which health care plan will pay first (called the primary insurer) for covered medical services or prescriptions and what the second health care plan (called the secondary insurer) will pay after the first plan has paid. Your out-of-pocket cost for services is limited to the amount that remains (if any) after the insurance is processed. Please note that not all health plans coordinate, and you must reach out to each health care vendor to confirm coordination.

How does this relate to the Spouse/OEI Affidavit? The Spouse/OEI Affidavit indicates whether or not your spouse/OEI is required (according to MSU's rules) to enroll in their own employer's health coverage. For the 2025 plan year, if your spouse has access to health care coverage through their own current or former employer for $1,500 or less annually (for single-person coverage), your spouse/OEI must enroll in their employer's health care plan.

You may still cover your spouse/OEI on your MSU health plan as a dependent, but the coverage through MSU will be considered secondary and their employer's coverage will be primary.

We know how important it is to continue to offer high-quality and affordable health care coverage to our benefits-eligible employees and their families. MSU devotes a significant amount of its overall budget to health care costs for our employees. As health care costs continue to steadily rise, it's important for MSU to implement strategies that allow us to continue to be able to provide high-quality health care plans while keeping employee premiums low. Initiatives such as the spouse/OEI affidavit are critical to ensuring affordability for both MSU and our employees. 

MSU offers coverage to a spouse/OEI regardless of how they respond to the affidavit. However, if the spouse/OEI has access to affordable coverage through their own employer, offering coverage to the spouse/OEI through MSU as the secondary plan will allow us to remain fiscally responsible and maintain quality and affordability of health care.

Completed Affidavit Online: After completing enrollment through the EBS portal, you will receive a benefit email confirmation statement. Please Note: you must complete and save all the Open Enrollment prompts in the EBS Portal in order to receive a confirmation statement; you cannot simply answer the affidavit and exit the portal. Find instructions to complete Open Enrollment online. To verify you have completed the affidavit successfully, review the affidavit reply date on your benefit email confirmation statement under the Health Plan Affidavit section. If the date listed is within the Open Enrollment period (October 1-31), you have completed the affidavit successfully.

Completed Affidavit via Email/Mail: If you were mailed the Open Enrollment guide and you submitted the affidavit via email or mail, you can login to the EBS Portal, select My Benefits on the top navigation, click on Current Benefits Participation and preview your benefit confirmation statement to validate the affidavit reply date. If the date is not updated, please contact the HR Solutions Center at SolutionsCenter@hr.msu.edu or 517-353-4434 (toll-free: 800-353-4434) to verify receipt. It may take 7-10 business days to show an updated affidavit reply date.

MSU Retirees no longer need to complete the affidavit (yellow form) to have a spouse/OEI remain on their health plan. However, in the unfortunate event of a death or divorce, please contact the HR Solutions Center (if you haven't already) at SolutionsCenter@hr.msu.edu or 517-353-4434 (toll-free 800-353-4434).

Voluntary benefits – such as vision, legal and critical illness insurance, among others – are offered through MSU Benefits Plus and are not administered by MSU. If you are already enrolled in the voluntary benefits and wish to continue your coverage, no action is needed. If you wish to add new coverage, change, or cancel existing coverage, please visit the MSU Benefits Plus website. Contact MSU Benefits Plus at 888-758-7575 with any questions.

Voluntary benefits (including VSP vision insurance) are administered directly through MSU Benefits Plus (not MSU) and do not appear on your MSU benefit email confirmation statement when you participate in Open Enrollment through the EBS Portal.

When you enroll in a voluntary benefits plan through the MSU Benefits Plus website, you will receive an email confirmation statement directly from MSU Benefits Plus.

After you log in to the MSU Benefits Plus website, click on Benefits and then Enrollments to view a summary of your enrollment elections. Click on Deductions to view an itemized list of your voluntary benefit deductions. The Benefits section only provides participation status on products you have enrolled in within the MSU Benefits Plus website—such as vision, legal, and critical illness insurance.

You need to complete the Add a Family Member or Dependent Form in the EBS Portal and submit required documentation. Find instructions to add a family member or dependent on the HR website.

Follow these steps to remove a dependent from your benefits:

• Login to the EBS Portal
• Select My Benefits on the top navigation
• Click on Benefit/Retirement Enrollment & Changes tile, select Open Enrollment from the dropdown menu, then click next in the bottom right-hand corner.
• Click #4 Health Plans at the top of the screen. Navigate to the plan you wish to remove the dependent and click on the edit (pencil icon) button. A pop-up will appear and each dependent covered will have a check mark. Remove the check mark next to the individual you would like to remove and update the coverage level (single, two person, etc.) if needed.
• Continue through the enrollment application until you can save your changes. You will receive a confirmation statement confirming your election change via email.

If you received an enrollment packet in the mail, you can submit the offline enrollment/change form to remove your dependent from coverage.

Note: The dependent will be removed from your plan but will remain visible in the dependent section of the enrollment application.

When the life insurance coverage selected requires evidence of insurability (EOI), your insurance coverage level will show an additional .01 on your coverage. Once the EOI has been processed, your coverage will no longer include the additional .01.

When the life insurance coverage selected requires evidence of insurability (EOI), both coverage levels are shown in the enrollment application. The coverage elected that requires EOI will have a pending status. Once the EOI has been processed, you will no longer have an additional pending record appear.

The evidence of insurability (EOI) process is required when enrolling for the first time or increasing coverage for employee paid life and/or spouse life insurance during Open Enrollment. Prudential requires the review of personal health information through a short medical questionnaire form. If needed, Prudential may also require a more in-depth medical questionnaire form, additional documentation from a physician, or a paramedical exam. Upon receipt of all required information, Prudential will advise you whether your requested election has been approved or denied based on the information received.

When evidence of insurability (EOI) is required for the life insurance level elected, you will receive an email from Prudential that includes a link to complete a questionnaire regarding your personal health. Prudential will either immediately approve your medical questionnaire, or they will require a more in-depth medical questionnaire form, additional information from your physician, or a paramedical exam. If additional information is required, you would need to work with Prudential to provide the additional information.

Individuals on a leave of absence without pay may still need to participate in Open Enrollment. Review page 8 in the following Open Enrollment guide to determine if you need to take any action. While on a leave without pay, enrollment is completed through an offline enrollment form, which you can find here in the 2025 Open Enrollment Benefits Guide for individuals in the following groups: Cash-for-Life, COBRA, Long-term Disability, One Year Paid Medical, Postdoctoral Fellows, Unpaid Leave of Absence and Workers’ Compensation. You should have also received this guide in the mail.