Carnegie Mellon University

Life and Family Status Changes

Following IRS regulations, you can make changes to your benefits that are consistent with your life or family status change within 30 days of the date that the status change occurred. If you miss the 30-day enrollment period, you must wait until the next Open Enrollment to make changes.

  • You have 30 days from the event to request benefit changes in Workday. After electing the new benefits, you have 30 days to upload required documentation. This includes documentation to verify the status change and to verify newly added dependents.
  • The benefit changes you request must be consistent with your life or family status change. For example, if your spouse loses outside Medical/Rx coverage, you may add your spouse to your Medical/Rx plan, but you would not be able to drop Vision coverage.
  • In most cases, you may not change the benefit carrier or option (e.g., UPMC to Highmark or PPO Option 2 to PPO Option 1), but you may modify the level of your coverage (e.g., employee and spouse to family coverage).

Qualifying Changes

  • Marital/domestic partnership status changes (e.g., marriage or registration of partnership, death, divorce or termination of partnership)
  • Employment status changes (e.g., part-time to full-time)
  • Coverage from another source is gained or lost
  • Dependent eligibility changes (e.g., birth or adoption, death, or dependent becomes ineligible for coverage)
  • Significant change in cost or coverage of plan (as defined by the university)
  • Relocation (e.g., domestic to international position change, spouse arriving from overseas)

Supporting Documentation

Supporting documentation to verify a status change, such as a birth certificate, marriage certificate, or proof of new coverage, is required.