The "Benefit Change Log" will display all pending or processed benefits for a specific benefits package. Benefit changes are used in the administration of benefits either by the company or the company's insurance carrier(s). Changes that must be transmitted to an insurance carrier can be exported in .csv or .txt formats through the Export Utility. Once an export from Core has been executed against the "Benefit Change Log", an Export Date will be applied to the summary record, and all new changes made from that point forward will be created within a new summary record.
Table of Contents
Benefit Change Log Menu
The 'Benefit Change Log' will provide a drop-down menu to specify which package to review:
The page will present the following columns:
- Package - Clicking the link for the name of the package will let you view the details of the benefit change log.
- Benefit - The type of benefit.
- Carrier - The carrier associated with the benefit.
- Export Date - The date this data is included in an export. If the date is 'Pending', the data has not been exported yet.
- Employees in Export - The number of employees in the benefit change log.
Benefit Change Log Details
The hyperlink allows users to see specific export data including the current reason for the export. The 'Reason' can be edited if an Employee is forced into the 'Benefit Change Log'.
The 'Benefit Change Log Details' will present the following columns:
- Employee/Dependent - The affected employee and any affected dependent(s) attached to the employee’s enrolled benefit.
- Employee ID
- Coverage - The level of benefit coverage.
- Effective Date - The effective date of the benefit coverage.
- Expiration Date - The expiration date of the benefit coverage.
- Reason - The reason for the benefit change.
Benefit Change Log Detail Records will be highlighted in yellow when the benefit election is deleted from Core HR.
Reason for Change
The reason for a benefit change is indicated from the 'Reason' field and can be updated as needed:
Records are inserted into this log based on defined employee benefit data changes. When one of the below actions occurs, a record is inserted into the log as New, Terminate, or Change.
- Coverage Initiated – When coverage begins for an employee and their dependents.
- Coverage Level Changed – When an employee experiences a change and the coverage level changes (i.e. 'Employee Only' to 'Employee + Spouse').
- Coverage Terminated – When coverage ends for an employee and their covered dependents.
- Coverage Amount Changed – When an employee experiences a change in a coverage amount (i.e. a voluntary life insurance benefit changes from 10,000 to 20,000).
- Coverage Effective Date Changed - The effective date of coverage was changed from the original date.
- Coverage Termination Date Changed - The termination date of coverage was changed from the original date.
- Dependent Coverage Changed
- Benefit Record Created
- Address Change – Denotes a change in demographic information but is not limited to address changes only.
- Forced into Change Log - This code is applied when an admin forces a record into the log from the benefit screen. Since this reason is generic, the record generally is not useful in files where export reasons are used. The admin must update the reason code from 'Forced into Change Log' to a valid export reason (i.e. from 'Forced into Change Log' to 'Coverage Level Changed').
- Coverage Reinstated
- Undefined
A flowchart of the logging process has been provided below.
How Benefit Change Log Records are Used
If an export is created using the Benefit Data Type and is configured as a "Full File" then the export looks to the Benefit Change Log to insert those records that changed in addition to employees with no changes. Records in the Benefit Change Log with an export reason of "Coverage Terminated" will only export once. The next time the "Full File" executes it will no longer contain that record.
If an export is created using the Benefit Data Type and is configured as a "Change File", then the export looks to the Benefit Change Log and inserts ONLY those records in the Log.
To configure an export as either a full or change file, navigate to the Properties tab of a data export.