Current Employees

When can I enroll?

You can enroll for your benefits during one of these occurrences:

• Open Enrollment — the dates are usually announced in the fall
• Within the first 31 days of your new hire date or when you become newly eligible for benefits
• If you experience a qualified life event, such as marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child

What if I choose to wait to enroll?

If you decline medical coverage, you won’t be able to enroll until the next annual enrollment period, unless you have a qualified life event.

How do I enroll or process a life event?

Step 1 – Have Your Information Ready:

• Have the social security number and birth date easily accessible for any dependent(s) you will be adding to your coverage
• Know what plan(s) you want to enroll in. This is also a good time to review your list of beneficiaries to make sure they are up-to-date

Step 2 – Visit Aptia365 and Register as a New User:

To register, you will need the last 4 digits of your social security number, your last name, your date of birth and your home zip code. Follow the steps to set up your account.

If you do not access the enrollment system and actively decline medical coverage when you first become eligible, you will be automatically enrolled in employee only coverage under the Anthem $900 Deductible plan with no dental, no vision and no pre-tax accounts. You must decline coverage if you do not want to be covered by a Pearson medical plan.

Employees Eligible to Participate in Pearson’s Plans

• Regular/casual-seasonal or limited term full-time regular employees
• Regular/casual-seasonal or limited term part-time regular employees who work 20 hours or more per week

Note: Limited term employees are not eligible for isdability benefits.

Dependents Eligible to Participate

• Your legal spouse (including common-law spouses)
• Your same- or opposite-sex domestic partner [upon submission and approval of the Affidavit of Spousal Equivalency (PDF, 192KB)]. Please note:
  • The value of the coverage will be treated as taxable income to you.
  • Spousal equivalents are not covered by COBRA. However, at its sole discretion, Pearson may offer limited continuation coverage.
  • You must enroll your spousal equivalent (and their eligible dependent children, if any) within 31 days of becoming benefits eligible, or during open enrollment. You can discontinue coverage for your spousal equivalent during open enrollment, or during the year if you complete a Statement of Termination of Spousal Equivalency.
  • You are required to submit a Statement of Termination of Spousal Equivalency within 31days of the date of death of your spousal equivalent, or of the date the criteria of spousal equivalency are no longer met.
• Children until the end of the month they turn age 26, regardless of student status, marital status, residency or tax dependency. For purposes of this provision, a child is defined as:
  • A son, daughter, stepson or stepdaughter of the employee
  • The children of your domestic partner
  • A foster child placed with the participant by an authorized placement agency or by a judgment, decree or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction (foster children are not eligible for dependent life or dependent AD&D)
  • A legally adopted child of the participant or a child who has been lawfully placed with the participant for legal adoption. Under the Health Care FSA, any dependent you can claim on your federal income tax return (without regard to their gross income) is an eligible dependent
  • Under the Dependent Day Care FSA, eligible dependents include (1) your dependent children under age 13 and (2) disabled spouse or dependent who is incapable of self-care and who lives in your home. To be eligible, you must be able to claim the individual as a dependent on your federal income tax return

How Contributions Work

You and Pearson share in the cost of some of the benefit options available such as medical, dental and long-term disability. Medical, dental, vision, spending, commuter and savings account contributions are made on a before-tax basis. All other insurance contributions are made on an after-tax basis.

Employee contributions are shown on a per-paycheck basis and can be found by logging into Aptia365.

How ‘Annual Pay’ is Defined

For most of the benefit programs, pay is defined differently depending
upon your job classification, as described below.

• For full-time regular employees, except sales employees, annual pay is defined as base compensation, excluding overtime, commissions, bonuses and any other additional compensation.
• For sales positions that normally earn commissions/bonuses in the marketplace, annual pay is defined as current base pay plus sales commissions and/or sales bonuses paid in the prior calendar year.
• For part-time regular employees scheduled for 20 or more hours per week, annual pay is defined as the product of an hourly rate times 1,820 (based on a 35-hour week).

Contributions for medical coverage are tiered according to your annual pay (with the exception of part-timers who pay a flat rate). This means that the more an employee earns, the greater their contribution. The tiers are grouped in $25,000 increments until you reach $150,000+.

Coverage Categories for Medical, Dental, and Vision Programs

Employee Only

If you are single and have no dependents, or if your spouse/DP and/or child(ren) have coverage through another plan, you may want to choose this category.

Employee Plus Child(ren) 

If you are a parent with one or more child(ren), or if your spouse/DP has other coverage but you want to cover your child(ren) under your plan, you may want to choose this category.

Employee Plus Spouse/Domestic Partner

If you want to cover yourself and your spouse/DP, you may want to choose this category.

Employee Plus Family

If you want to cover yourself, your spouse/DP and one or more child(ren), you may want to choose this category.

You can choose a different coverage category for each program. For example, if you choose medical coverage just for yourself, you can still choose to cover yourself and your family under the dental program, and yourself and one dependent under the vision program.

To report a life event, please do the following:

• Visit Aptia365
• Select, “Any Major Changes In Your Life”
• Select the applicable life event from the menu of items listed

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) restricts any mid-year changes (i.e. changes that occur outside of annual enrollment) to your plan or coverage unless you have a qualified change in status — also referred to as a life event. The following are considered qualified changes in status by the IRS:

• You get married or enter a same- or opposite-sex Domestic Partnership (please complete the Affidavit of Spousal Equivalency (PDF, 188 KB)
• Change in legal marital status, including annulment, termination of a domestic partnership (complete a Statement of Termination, (PDF, 158 KB) and death of a spouse. Legal separation is not a qualified life event.
• Change in number of dependents, including birth, adoption, placement for adoption, or death of a dependent child
• Change in employment status, including the start or termination of employment by you, your spouse, or your dependent child
• Change in work schedule that affects eligibility for benefits
• Change in a child’s dependent status, either newly satisfying the requirements for dependent child status or ceasing to satisfy them
• Change in place of residence or work site that affects the accessibility of network providers
• Change in your health coverage or your spouse’s coverage attributable to your spouse’s employment
• Change in an individual’s eligibility for Medicare or Medicaid
• A court order resulting from a divorce, legal separation, annulment, or change in legal custody (including a Qualified Medical Child Support Order) requiring coverage for your child or dependent foster child
• If the cost charged for a benefit offered under a Section 125 plan significantly increases or decreases during a period of coverage

Please note that any changes you make must be consistent with the change in status, and you must make the changes within 31 days of the date the event (marriage, birth, etc.) occurs. For a complete list of qualified changes in status and the associated changes in benefits that are permissible, refer to the Benefits Highlights Section of the Summary Plan Description (PDF, 304 KB).

Changes To Your HSA, Commuter and/or Parking Accounts

You do not need a qualifying life event to make contribution changes to your HSA, Commuter or Parking accounts. You can visit Aptia365 anytime to make a change.