The Coming 2025 Plan Year
2025 Benefits Plan Highlights
Your Human Resources Benefits Team has been working hard to secure the best comprehensive employee benefits package possible and is excited to roll out the plan for 2025. The centerpiece of SPU’s benefits package is the health insurance policy, which is both affordable and benefit rich. We are especially glad to report that SPU will continue to offer health, dental and vision coverage at zero cost for employee-only coverage and at well-subsidized rates for employee and employees’ families. Below is a brief summary of some key information about the health insurance plan and other benefits to help get you ready to elect the best options for you and your family for the coming year.
Open Enrollment Happening Now!
Open Enrollment is coming October 21 – November 1, 2024, for the benefit plan year which begins January 1, 2025. Open Enrollment is the annual period when eligible employees may begin/end coverage, add/drop dependents, or move between plan offerings for 2025 without having experienced a qualifying (major life-changing) event. It is also the only time of year to enroll in a Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA). While many facets of our benefits package, such as our health, dental, and vision insurance providers, remain the same, we have made a few lineup changes to secure the best-value and most convenient options to complement our continuing partners. Beginning with the new plan year, Unum will offer SPU’s voluntary life insurance product, and Aetna will add three supplemental policies to our menu of voluntary options. These options will replace the Colonial Life policies offered on the 2024 platform.
We encourage everyone to actively participate in open enrollment and to review all current elections along with the new features for 2025. However, if you are not enrolled in any of the voluntary supplemental policies and you do not need to change any elections, your enrollment will default to your current elections and convert your voluntary life coverage from to Unum in the same amount and at the same premium. With the transition to Unum as our sole life insurance carrier everyone has the option to enroll in additional life insurance for yourself, your spouse, and your children with a guaranteed issue up to $200,000 for the employee. If you are enrolled in any of the other voluntary supplemental policies offered through Colonial Life in 2024, then you must participate in open enrollment to make new elections from the 2025 options with Aetna. The switch to Aetna’s supplemental policies streamlines the open enrollment process, allowing employees to make their elections within the SPU/Banner tool. Employees who prefer to continue supplemental policies with Colonial Life may do so by contacting a Colonial representative and making independent arrangements for premium payments. Employees maintaining Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) must also actively re-elect this option each year. And remember, as always, plan deductibles and other accumulators will all reset with the start of the new plan year on January 1.
Please review the following:
- The complete 2025 SPU Benefits Guide
- The 2025 High Deductible Health Plan Benefit Summary (coming soon!)
- The 2025 Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) (coming soon!)
- The 2025 Your Rights Notices. (coming soon!)
Do you have questions about specifics of the medical plan benefits, provider networks, or prescription drug plan? If so, please contact the Aetna Health Concierge line at 1 (833) 735-0680.
Table of Contents
What You Can Expect for 2025
- Employee-only health, dental, and vision coverage at zero cost.
- The Vision plan family rates will remain unchanged.
- The family Medical and Dental plans have slight premium increases.
- Deductibles and out of pocket maximums have increased slightly. Employee only deductible is $2,500, will be $2,650; OOP is $4,000, will be $5,000. Employee-Plus tiers deductible is $5,000, will be $5,300, and OOP is $8,000, will be $10,000.
- The current monthly SPU contribution structure for the HSA and HRA ($1,008/$2,016) will continue, and the additional HSA-matching contribution that was added last year will also continue ($600/$1,000).
Below are additional details.
Medical Plan
COVERAGE | Full-time | Part-Time |
|---|---|---|
| Employee Only | $0 | $233 |
Employee + Spouse | $481 | $704 |
| Employee + Child(ren) | $157 | $400 |
| Employee + Family | $648 | $911 |
Dental Plan
COVERAGE | Full-time | Part-time |
|---|---|---|
Employee Only | $0 | $25 |
| Employee + Spouse | $63 | $88 |
| Employee + Child(ren) | $60 | $85 |
| Employee + Family | $123 | $148 |
Vision Plan
COVERAGE | Full-time & Part-time |
|---|---|
Employee Only | $0 |
| Employee + Spouse | $10 |
| Employee + Child(ren) | $12 |
| Employee + Family | $24 |
What is a Deductible?
A deductible is the amount you pay each year for eligible health care expenses before your insurance plan will begin to pay for covered expenses.
For example, if you are enrolled in individual medical coverage, you have a $2,650 annual deductible. You will be responsible to pay for all of your covered health care services until you have paid $2,650 that year.
Once you have paid $2,650, Aetna will start to pay their share of the following costs (this is called 'coinsurance') at a rate of paying 80% if using an In-Network service provider and 60% if you use an Out-of-Network provider until you reach your annual out-of-pocket maximum. After that, the plan will pay for 100% of the covered medical expenses.
If you have family coverage, meaning you cover at least one dependent on your medical plan, then a family deductible of $5,300 applies to everyone taken together.
Why are HSAs So Powerful?
- It's your money! You own it, the HSA is portable; even if you change SPU plan options, leave SPU, or retire.
- It's very tax-favored! HSAs enjoy what we call a 'triple tax advantage': the contributions are pre-tax, you can get tax-free growth on those funds while you hold them, and distributions that cover eligible health expenses are also tax-free.
- The HSA funds can grow! Once you have a minimum amount, you can invest in a selection of funds through HSA Bank's investment options. But be cautious, these funds are intended for your health expenses.
- HSAs are also retirement accounts! Because you keep the funds, you can take your HSA into retirement and use the funds tax-free for health expenses then. Further, once you are 65, you can withdrawal funds like any other retirement account and only pay regular income tax on it (no penalty is assessed, like prior to age 65).
- HSAs are flexible! You are in control of your funds and can contribute up to IRS limits and spend on health costs for any of your tax-dependents, even if they are not enrolled in the SPU medical plans.
What is an Annual Maximum?
Each year that you are covered on the plan (our 'plan year' follows the calendar year), Aetna will keep track of all the covered medical and prescription expenses you have to pay for. These might be in the form of deductible expenses, coinsurance (where you pay a percentage of costs after the deductible is covered), or prescription costs.
This is very important because it puts a limit on what you could owe if you or a covered family member needs high cost medical care; or if several people in your family do.
If you have Employee Only coverage, your annual out-of-pocket maximum is $5,000 per year. If you cover a family member on your medical plan, the maximum increases to $10,000 with all family members taken together. (There is an exception for those with family coverage that have only one person with high costs: a separate limit of $5,000 is applied to that individual's costs so that one person cannot make a family owe the entire family maximum.)
How Does SPU Help Offset Deductible Expenses?
To help with the deductible, which resets back to zero each January, SPU contributes the amounts in the table below into an HSA based on your plan choice for 2025. These figures assume that your participation in the plan is for all 12 months, and you make enough employee HSA contributions (from your own payroll deductions) to trigger the SPU match up to the annual cap that applies to you based on your plan enrollment.
An equivalent annual contribution is made into the Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) for those who choose to enroll in that plan. The HRA allows all of these funds to be available right away but there are no employee contributions allowed, by IRS regulations. While unused HRA funds rollover from year-to-year; if you leave HRA plan enrollment, SPU retains the unused funds at that time.
If you are enrolled in a Health Savings Account (HSA), SPU will contribute monthly to an HSA on your behalf plus a dollar-for-dollar match of your HSA contributions, up to the annual maximum.
| HDHP Coverage Level | SPU Monthly Contributions | SPU Match of Employee HSA Contributions | Total Possible SPU HSA Contributions per Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | $84 | Up to $600 per plan year* | $1,608 in 2025 |
| Family | $168 | Up to $1,000 per plan year** | $3,016 in 2025 |
*If you have Individual coverage and contribute by payroll deduction to your HSA during 2025, SPU will match your HSA contributions dollar-for dollar, up to $600 for the year.
**If you have Family coverage and contribute by payroll deduction to your HSA during 2025, SPU will match your HSA contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to $1,000 for the year.
Tip: For those who participate in the HSA, with SPU’s additional contributions, be sure to review your contribution plan to ensure that all HSA contributions will not exceed the annual IRS maximums ($4,300 for self-coverage and $8,550 for family coverage). You may change your HSA pre-tax contribution amounts once per pay period. Please take advantage of your personalized HSA Calculator to help you plan appropriately.
HSA funds belong to the account holder and are portable: unused funds do rollover to the next plan year. If you change coverage to the HRA plan or otherwise lose eligibility to this plan, contributions to the HSA are no longer allowed but you do keep current funds in the HSA to be used for qualifying health expenses in the future.
Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA)
If you are enrolled in a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA), SPU will fund the below amounts to an HRA setup on your behalf, based on your HDHP enrollment.
| Coverage Level | SPU Contributions for 2025 |
|---|---|
| Individual | $1,008 |
| Family | $2,016 |
Eligible reimbursements through the HRA are for the employee and also eligible dependents that are enrolled on the HDHP plan as a dependent under the employee's medical coverage. If an otherwise qualified dependent is not enrolled on the HDHP medical plan, their expenses are not eligible for reimbursement from this HRA plan.
If a participant remains covered on this HRA plan from year-to-year and does not use up all the funds available, the unused HRA funds from the prior year will rollover and be added to the funding available in subsequent plan years.
However, once coverage under this HRA plan is ended, either because of moving over to the HSA plan or because of changing employment (or losing benefit eligibility), the funds remaining in the HRA are returned back to the plan at that time. Thus, HRA funds are not portable.
HRA contributions are pro-rated on a monthly basis for those with midyear changes.
Flexible Spending Accounts - FSAs Require Annual Re-enrollment
If you participate in our Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), please review the contribution limits for 2025 as they have been adjusted for the new plan year. There is a small increase that the IRS announced for the Health FSA, based on cost of living changes (the Dependent Care FSA is, by law, not similarly indexed and continues to remain the same amount). If there are multiple adults in a household with access to a Health FSA, both may use this benefit through their employer in the same tax year; they may be 'stacked'.
If you are considering using the Dependent Care FSA, please note that each household may only use this tax-favored vehicle once per tax year, you cannot have two spouses both using this from their own employer. Further, you may only use the Dependent Care FSA or the Dependent Care tax credit in a given tax year, not both.
FSA Contribution Limits for 2025*
Health FSA | Limited-Purpose FSA** (Dental & Vision Only) | Dependent Care FSA |
|---|---|---|
$3,200 *2024 Rate; IRS 2025 rate still pending | $3,200 **2024 Rate; IRS 2025 rate still pending | $5,000 *No change as of 10.18.24 |
**A Limited-purpose FSA is designed to be paired with someone that has an HSA. Remember, if you enroll in a basic Health FSA, that makes you ineligible to make or receive any HSA contributions. But for those on the HSA plan, they are only allowed to use the Limited-Purpose FSA without becoming ineligible for HSA contributions. That is because the Limited-Purpose FSA is only allowed to be used for dental and vision expenses. A very common use of the Limited-Purpose FSA is to cover the costs of orthodontia. Orthodontia is a large, known expense and if you want to preserve your HSA funds, you may use the Limited-Purpose FSA to pay for orthodontia to help retain your HSA funds.
Dates to keep in mind:
March 15th, 2026: The deadline to incur expenses for FSA reimbursement based on the 2025 plan year.
March 31st, 2026: All 2025 FSA claims must be submitted to HSA Bank for reimbursement, otherwise they will be forfeited.
Voluntary Life and AD&D Insurance Changes
Our Voluntary Life insurance is switching to the Unum Group, which is the same group that provides the University provided Life Insurance. The new voluntary life insurance option will make it easier for employees to enroll in these voluntary benefits and gives the opportunity to have your employer paid Life Insurance as well as your Voluntary Life Insurance all in one place. All benefit eligible employees can get a Guaranteed Issue (GI) $200,000 policy, a GI $25,000 spouse policy, and GI $10,000 for each eligible child. You are able to apply for amounts greater than the guaranteed issue amounts, however, you or your spouse/family members may need a health assessment to be approved for amounts above the GI. To make the necessary switch of Voluntary Life insurance, you will need to elect your desired coverage through Banner during open enrollment. Otherwise, your current voluntary life policy will lapse on 1/1/2025.
Additional Voluntary Benefits available through Aetna
You have the option to apply for voluntary benefits from Aetna. When the unexpected happens, costs can add up quickly. Aetna's voluntary supplemental benefits can provide more financial protection, putting employees and their families at ease. Aetna plan options include:
- Accident Plan
- Critical Illness Plan
- Hospital Indemnity Plan
For more information:
Aetna Supplemental Benefits Plans Flyer