Benefits Open Enrollment is Now Available

Benefits Open Enrollment is now open and will go through 3 p.m., Friday, May 15, 2026. Benefits changes made during this open enrollment period are effective for the Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) benefits plan year (July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027). Here is a glance at our FY27 Summary of Benefits and visit the ISU HR Open Enrollment web page for full details and updated plan information.

Great News for FY27!

Medical and dental premiums for employees will stay the same for the upcoming plan year, even as health benefits costs rise. A projected 9.5% increase will instead be covered through increased employer contributions, legislative support, and one-time reserve funds from the State Office of Group Insurance (OGI)—keeping coverage affordable for FY27. Idaho State University recognizes this has been a challenging year, and are grateful for the support of state lawmakers and OGI making meaningful steps to stabilize health care premium costs for our employees.

Medical and Dental plans will have a passive enrollment process, so those currently enrolled in a given medical and/or dental plan will be automatically enrolled in the same Regence BlueShield (medical) and Blue Cross (dental) plan without having to fill out any new forms.

Now is a great time to make sure our providers (Regence and Blue Cross) have the most up to date information on file. Please take a moment to check and if needed, update your ‘mailing address’ found in ‘My Profile’ on your Employee Dashboard. If you updated your mailing address, please also email benefits@isu.edu with the corrected address so we can send the correction to the insurance servicers. 

If you do not need to update your mailing address and are not making any of the changes listed below, then there is no action you need to take during open enrollment. 

OGI Memo Regarding Regence / Portneuf Negotiations

The State Office of Group Insurance has shared an important update with members regarding ongoing contract negotiations between Regence and Ardent Health for Portneuf Medical Center with potential impacts to Portneuf's in-network status. ISU is in close contact with the Office of Group Insurance as negotiations unfold and will keep employees updated as we learn more about potential changes.

Open Enrollment allows you to:

• Enroll/re-enroll to participate in a Medical and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA). Enrollment in an FSA does NOT automatically continue from one year to the next. All employees who wish to participate in Medical and/or Dependent Care FSA for the next plan year (July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027), MUST enroll or re-enroll during this open enrollment period as required by the IRS No exceptions can be made if you miss the May 15 enrollment deadline.
• Enroll in the Health Saving Account (HSA) if you are already enrolled in or changing plans to the High deductible plan, but are not yet enrolled in the HSA. If you have already enrolled in the HSA it will automatically continue into the FY27 plan year.
• Enroll, disenroll, or make changes to your medical plan selection without a qualifying life event. This is the only time during the year you can change your medical plan type, such as switching from “Traditional” to “PPO” or from PPO/Traditional to High deductible (or vice versa). 
• Enroll or disenroll in self or dependent dental coverage without a qualifying life event. This is the only time of year this change can be made. 
• Switch premium deductions from pre-tax to post-tax. This is the only time of year this change can be made. All employees are automatically set-up with pre-tax deductions.
• Sign up for NCPERS supplemental life insurance. This is for active PERSI participants only. 

All forms must be RECEIVED by the ISU HR Office (Pocatello) no later than 3 PM on Friday, May 15. Forms submitted past this deadline will not be accepted by the State’s Office of Group Insurance. 

• DocuSign Forms are submitted when “finalize” is selected on the online form.
• Paper Forms (specially requested through Janice) are submitted when turned into the Box link or directly to HR.

ZOOM Q/A SESSIONS

We will be hosting four ZOOM Q/A sessions to assist you with any questions you may have. Feel free to hop on and off during a session.

• Thursday 5/07/2026 4:00-5:00 Open Enrollment Zoom Q&A
• Click here to add to your calendar
• Tuesday 5/12/2025 9:30-10:30 Open Enrollment Zoom Q&A
• Click here to add to your calendar

If you have questions about your benefits or completing open enrollment forms, please contact our ISU HR Benefits Coordinator, Janice Romero at (208) 282-3106 or benefits@isu.edu.