News you need to know …

Take advantage of the additional ‘Wellness Benefit’ from Voya

As part of your Critical Illness Insurance, you can qualify for a “Wellness Benefit.” Voya will provide an annual benefit of $50 per calendar year for taking one of the eligible health screening/prevention measures. Voya will pay only one health screening benefit per covered person per calendar year. For example, annual physical exam, mammogram, colonoscopy, pap test, prostate exam, hemoglobin A1C, blood panel, etc. Information on eligible health screenings and how to file a claim can be found on the here.

Don’t forget, if you are participating in the 2022 Healthy Boiler Program to earn incentives and have already had your annual physical (and biometrics screening if desired) completed, you have already had a qualifying screening/prevention measure taken. If not, you can plan to earn both the Healthy Boiler incentive – complete steps by December 31, 2022 – and the Critical Illness Insurance Wellness Benefit in 2022.

Purdue’s Mental Health Action Week (MHAW) set for March 7 – 11

Purdue Student Government, in partnership with several other University student groups, Purdue Graduate Student Government, administration and human resources, will once again host a week-long event focused on mental health. The event aligns with the Healthy Boiler Program in support of its behavioral health pillar. Purdue health coaches will hold two Healthy Boiler workshops focused on behavioral health during the week:

The Magical Power of Sleep
March 7, noon – 1 p.m. ET
Attendees will take part in a discussion on the value of sleep as a critical wellness factor.
Physical Fitness & Mental Health
March 11, noon – 1 p.m. ET
Attendees will learn how physical activity can enhancer their mood and energy levels as well as help reduce stress levels, anxiety and depression.

More information, including registration links will be shared via the weekly mental health Purdue Today article on March 2. Stay tuned.

Submit tobacco-cessation waiver by March 31 to waive additional premium for entire 2021 plan year

As a reminder, employees (and their spouse, if covered) who certify as tobacco users (a person who has used tobacco, including cigars, cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco or any other tobacco product in the past 12 months) during open enrollment each year will pay an additional $1,000 tobacco-user premium on their medical benefits. Full or partial premium waivers can be obtained by completing an approved tobacco cessation program.

Completed program certificates from an approved tobacco cessation program submitted by March 31 will waive the tobacco-user additional premium for the entire 2022 plan year. If the form is submitted after March 31, the premium will be waived for the remainder of the 2022 plan year.

For more information about the additional premium, visit the Purdue Medical Plan Tobacco-User Additional Premium: Questions and Answers web page.

Use the “How Much Will You Save?” calculator provided by smokefree.gov to see personalized cost savings results based only on the number of cigarettes smoked per day.

March 31 is deadline to submit 2021 FSA, LPFSA, DCFSA, HRA claims

Human Resources is reminding employees who used 2021 flexible spending accounts – health care flexible spending accounts (FSAs), limited purpose flexible spending accounts (LPFSA) and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts (DCFSA) as well as health reimbursement arrangements – that the deadline to submit claims for reimbursement is March 31. Any funds remaining in accounts after March 31 will be forfeited.

Employees needing to submit a claim can use the HSA Bank Reimbursement Request Form or may file a claim online at www.hsabank.com or through the HSA Bank app – log in, click or tap "File a Claim," select the account and follow the prompts to submit supporting documentation and enter the claim details.

More information is available on these web pages:

Questions can be directed to HSA Bank Customer Service at 800-357-6246 or via email at askus@hsabank.com. HRA inquiries should be directed to 844-650-8936.

Discounted entry fees for 2022 OneAmerica 500 Festival events available

As part of the Healthy Boiler Program, and in support of the behavioral health, financial wellness and physical health pillars, Human Resources again is offering discounted registration fees for all faculty and staff for the 2022 OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon and 5K. The events take place on May 7. Employees can register at discounted rates here. The password is PU22.

NOTE: Those who chose to defer their registrations from past events – that were canceled due to COVID-19 – must register via the following links by April 22 to utilize the funds:

5K deferrals must register here. The password is PU22
Mini-Marathon deferrals must register here. The password is PU22

Enrollment in voluntary retirement savings plans always available

Purdue offers all employees, including temporary and student workers, the opportunity to contribute some of their salary to a tax-favored retirement program through automatic payroll deductions. The University offers two voluntary savings plan options through Fidelity. The Purdue-dedicated Fidelity website is available around the clock, allowing Purdue faculty and staff to manage their voluntary retirement savings contributions and investment mix year-round. Via the website, faculty and staff can begin, stop, increase or decrease contributions to voluntary retirement savings at any time. The site also provides access to change the future investment mix for any of the employee's Purdue retirement account contributions, including Purdue's contribution and the employee's contribution. Pre-tax and Roth savings options are available with a range of investment alternatives. Funds are immediately vested and may be retained or rolled over upon separation from Purdue. For more information, call Fidelity at 800-343-0860.

Review, update beneficiary information to ensure funds are appropriately distributed

It’s important to take a look at your beneficiary information at least once a year to make sure you have your beneficiaries lined up in order to appropriately distribute your funds based on your wishes after your passing. With that in mind, Employees are asked to take a moment to log into the Benefitfocus tool and review your beneficiary information. Benefitfocus is the official record of Purdue life insurance beneficiaries.

As a reminder, life insurance beneficiary records are now set to the plan default for employees who did not designate a beneficiary by the end of open enrollment last fall.

To help guide you through the process, the “Beneficiary Management" web page has outlined each of the benefit programs that provide for beneficiaries in the event of your death and instructions on how to make updates if needed. For more information on the beneficiary update process, contact the plan vendor at the respective numbers listed on the web page.

Important reasons to review SSN information in Benefitfocus

For several reasons, employees are asked to review their social security number (SSN) along with those of their dependents in Benefitfocus and make any corrections that are needed.

If your SSN is incorrect, your social security tax payments won’t get credited to you.
The Affordable Care Act (aka Health Care Reform) requires employers to send dependent social security numbers (SSN) for those covered on a Purdue medical plan to the IRS, along with the dependent’s medical plan election. If your dependent does not have an SSN to enter, you may disregard this message.
In order to get reimbursed from your health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) for eligible expenses incurred by your dependents, HSA Bank must have a valid SSN on file.
For dependents to utilize Rx Savings Solutions, they must have their SSN on file.

To access Benefitfocus, use the OneCampus Portal. Find the “Benefit Enrollment – Active link” and click it to log into Benefitfocus.

Once logged into Benefitfocus, in the menu on the left, click Dependents. Under Actions, click Edit next to your dependent’s name. Review the SSN for that dependent for accuracy. If you need to make a change, enter a new number, then click the black Save box at the bottom of the page. If no change is needed, click Cancel at the bottom of the page. Please be sure to do this for any dependents (spouse and children) whom you covered at any time to date in 2022.

For more information, please contact Human Resources at 765-494-2222, toll-free at 877-725-0222 or via email at hr@purdue.edu.

Behavioral health resources available

Behavioral health – one of the five pillars of the Healthy Boiler Program – plays a key role in overall employee well-being. The Mental Health Resources web page offers a variety of available resources.

Upcoming Healthy Boiler workshops

Healthy Boiler incentives, flexibility, asthma and more are the topics for the Healthy Boiler workshops being offered in the coming months. Healthy Boiler workshops are free to all benefits-eligible faculty and staff and dependents covered on a Purdue medical plan. Registration for all workshops can be done via the Healthy Boiler Portal. Registration link can be found under the “Healthy Boiler Workshops” section on the portal’s home page. Hover over the workshop’s square and hit “Submit” to register. See the full list of workshops on the “Healthy Boiler Workshops” web page.