You can cover your spouse or domestic partner, your child(ren) and your domestic partner's child(ren) under the age of 26 or your child(ren) and your domestic partner's child(ren) age 26 and older if physically or mentally handicaped. If you are covering a spouse in a Cotality medical plan, and that spouse has access to medical coverage under another employer, you will be subject to a $1,200 working spouse surcharge. Be sure to complete the enrollment process and your working spouse certification this year. 

You can elect:

• employee only
• employee plus spouse/domestic partner
• employee plus child(ren)
• employee plus spouse/domestic partner plus child(ren)

Yes, you will need to provide documentation of dependent status. Once you enroll a dependent, watch your mail at home for a letter detailing the required documents to complete your dependent enrollment. You must return the requested information within 45 days or your dependent will be dropped from coverage retroactively back to the start of coverage.

You will have 45 days from your enrollment date to provide proof of dependency. Your dependents will be covered during the verification process.

Choosing which benefits are right for you should not be a mystery— and the built in decision support tool is here to help! Answer a few simple questions to receive a personalized benefits recommendation that matches your unique needs and estimate your annual healthcare costs. The Decision Support Tool is available in the Cotality Benefits Center.

Annual Premium - The annual cost to purchase health insurance is spread across the year, so you pay a portion of over the course of 24 pay periods. Amounts differ based on the plan you select and the number of people you cover

Annual Deductible - This is the amount you will pay before the plan starts to pay. You won’t pay for in-network preventive care covered under health care reform

Coinsurance - After you meet the annual deductible, generally, you will continue to pay a percentage of the cost for covered medical services until you meet the out-of-pocket maximum.

Out-of-Pocket Maximum - This is the most you’d pay for covered medical services in a calendar year. Think of it as your financial safety net. Once you meet it, the plan covers the full cost of additional covered care

A Health Savings Account (HSA) is like a 401(k) for your medical expenses. If you enroll in the Consumer Choice Plan, Basic Plan or the Kaiser High Deductible HMO, you can contribute to your account each year. If you enroll in the Consumer Choice Plan or the Kaiser High Deductible HMO and you earn less than $150,000 per year in base salary, the company makes an additional annual contribution. You can use the money in your account for eligible medical expenses, including deductibles and coinsurance.

Once money goes into your HSA, it's yours to keep - whether you stay with Cotality or not. That means that it's a great tool to help you save for future medical expenses. For more information about the HSA, click here.

There are three easy ways to access money in your HSA:

• Debit Card – When you experience an eligible expense, pay directly with a debit card linked to your HSA.
• Online bill payment – Pay for health care expenses on your computer directly from your HSA.
• Online withdrawal – Transfer funds from your HSA to your personal bank account.

• With an HSA, the account is owned by you and follows you if you leave Cotality or retire. Unused money in your account rolls forward from year to year. If you earn $150,000 or less per year in base salary, the company makes an additional contribution to your account.
• With an FSA, only $660 or less of unused funds can be rolled over each plan year. Per IRS rules, unused money in your account at the end of the year above the $660 limit is forfeited. There is no company contribution.

If you enroll in the Consumer Choice Plan, Basic Plan or the Kaiser High Deductible HMO, you can contribute to a Health Savings Account (HSA) to help pay for eligible medical expenses. In fact, the company makes a contribution to your account if you enroll in the Consumer Choice Plan or Kaiser High Deductible HMO and earn less than $150,000 per year in base salary. You can also enroll in the Health Care FSA, but eligible expenses are limited to dental and vision expenses only. That is because you will get reimbursement for medical expenses from your HSA.

If you are covering a spouse in a Cotality medical plan in 2025, and your spouse works and is offered medical coverage through his/her place of employment, you will pay an additional $100 per month to cover your spouse in a Cotality plan ($1,200 per year).

Our primary commitment is to you, our employees. That means that we must make changes now to keep your medical benefits affordable in the future. After extensive market research, we found that implementing surcharges to cover spouse’s that had coverage available at his/her work was an emerging best practice. That’s why, if you want to cover a spouse and your spouse has access to coverage at his/her place of employment, you will pay $100 more per month to cover that spouse.

If your spouse’s employment status changes during the year, update your working spouse certification by visiting the Cotality Benefits Center.

No, you will only be subject to the spousal surcharge if your spouse has access to coverage through his/her employer. Government programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, are not considered an employer program.

Yes. Per the Affordable Care Act, tobacco users can be charged up to 50% more for health insurance premiums than non-tobacco users.

A tobacco or nicotine user is anyone that uses e-cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, snuff, dip, or any other tobacco-related/nicotine materials. This includes regular tobacco usage and occasional tobacco use during social occasions. It does not include someone that uses an electronic cigarette or e-cigarette that does not contain tobacco and is designed expressly for smoking cessation.

The cost to treat the diseases caused by tobacco products is excessive and, more importantly, preventable. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who smoke have more lifetime medical expenses and are absent from work more days each year than those who do not smoke. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, smoking harms nearly every organ in the body. It's been linked to cataracts, pneumonia, and accounts for about one-third of all cancer deaths. Overall rates of death from cancer are twice as high among smokers as among nonsmokers.

The amount of nicotine absorbed from smokeless tobacco is 3-4 times greater than that delivered by a cigarette. Chewing tobacco and snuff contains 28 cancer-causing agents. Smokeless tobacco increases the risk for cancer of the lip, tongue, cheeks, gums, and the floor and roof of the mouth. Other effects include oral leukoplakia (mouth lesions that can become cancerous), gum disease, and gum recession (when the gum pulls away from the teeth).

Nicotine replacement products like gum and patches are not considered tobacco products and will not count against you for the purpose of the tobacco/nicotine surcharge.

Those employees enrolled in a Cotality medical plan who do not certify to being tobacco free will pay an annual surcharge of $600.

If you are no longer a tobacco user, please submit a copy of your Quit Plan from smokefree.gov/build-your-quit-plan via a Workday Help ticket and the Benefits Team will update your designation and refund your surcharge.

You must change your certification status or risk penalty, fraud investigation, or termination from health insurance.

During Annual Enrollment in the fall, you must certify that you are not a tobacco user or you will pay the surcharge. 

You can check your current tobacco user status by visiting the Cotality Benefits Center.

Yes. Check with your plan provider to determine which prescription drugs are covered.

Visit LifeCare Online to:

• Access tips and tools to help you quit
• Download guides on quitting and controlling your weight as you quit
• Listen to podcasts loaded with tips on quitting
• Find out why relapse happens and learn how you can get back on track

To access resources on the web, please go to:

http://corelogic.care.com
Registration Code: Cotality
Member ID: your employee ID

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention:

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit_smoking/index.htm

If you work and you have a dependent child or disabled spouse that needs care during the day, the Dependent Care FSA may be right for you. You can contribute up to $5,000 in pre-tax dollars each year in your Dependent Care FSA. However, $5,000 is a household maximum, so if your spouse participates in a Dependent Care FSA at his or her work, your combined contributions cannot be more than $5,000.

Please note: our DCFSA benefits program is governed by provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). The IRC allows for pre-tax contributions to a DCFSA for certain childcare or other dependent care expenses. In order to offer the favorable tax treatment, Cotality must comply with certain IRC "non-discrimination" requirements. A DCFSA compliance failure under the IRC non-discrimination rules results in "highly compensated" plan participants losing some or all of the favorable tax treatment of their DCFSA contributions.

You can use money in your Dependent Care FSA for daycare expenses for your child(ren) while you and your spouse work.

Yes, however there is a $5,000 household maximum contribution each year.

When deciding how much to save in your reimbursement accounts, it’s important to plan carefully. Any money in your account at the end of the calendar year will be forfeited. Expenses must be incurred by December 31 of each year to be reimbursed through the reimbursement accounts. All claims must be submitted for reimbursement by March 31 of the following year.

You can enroll in your benefits and make your working spouse and tobacco use certification by visiting the Cotality Benefits Center.