Life Events | UAMS Human Resources

Use the checklists below to update your benefits when you experience a major life event. Please be aware that the benefit changes you wish to make must be on account of and consistent with your life event. You have a 30-day window to make changes inside of Workday. Visit Workday when you’ve prepared your supporting documentation, they will be required to submit any changes to your benefits.

Life Events Checklist

Other Life Events

Dependents

When a child turns 26, they are no longer eligible for coverage as a dependent (unless approved in advance as an adult disabled child). Medical/dental/vision coverage extends through the end of the month in which the child turns 26. Children who age out will be offered a continuation of coverage through COBRA.

Two members of a household both work at a UA campus

A person can only be covered once under a UA insurance plan. If you, your spouse, and/or a child all work at a UA campus and all are eligible for benefits, keep in mind:

No employee or dependent can be covered more than once.
You can select a different medical plan option then your spouse and you may add your children to either coverage, but not to both.

Each parent can be enrolled in a different medical plan, and each of them can enroll a different child under their coverage–but both cannot enroll the same child.

If you and your UA-employed spouse are covering a child, consider enrolling in one family plan. Otherwise separating out your coverage — one spouse with ’employee only’ coverage and the other with ’employee and children’ coverage — would increase your family deductibles.

Loss of other coverage

If you, your spouse, or child (under age 26) loses their health coverage involuntarily, you have 30 days to enroll them in or change your UAMS coverage. The change must be consistent with the event. Qualifying events include:

Spouse/child loses eligibility for coverage through their employer due to termination, leave of absence, or reduction in hours;
Spouse’s/child’s employer stops contributing to the insurance premium;
You are covered under another employer’s COBRA plan and the continuation period (usually 18 months) is exhausted; or
Loss of Medicaid, ARKids1st, or other public-assistance coverage.

Court decree

If the courts require you — the employee and the parent — to provide coverage for your dependent children, you have 30 days to change your UAMS coverage. The appropriate legal document must be provided. The same 30-day window applies when adding a child due to legal guardianship or legal custody.

Relocation to the USA

If your family has made a permanent move to the United States of America from another country in the last 30 days, you may add them to your medical and dental coverage. The appropriate travel or immigration documents must be provided to show the date of entry into this country. If a family member lives part of the year in the U.S. and part of the year in another country, they will need to be covered for the entire year under the University’s insurances.

Change in UAMS employment

You have a 30-day window to make new benefit elections if:

You transfer from a temporary job to a regular job;
You transfer from benefits-ineligible status (such as a student worker or graduate assistant) to benefits-eligible status;
You increase your percent of time worked from less than 50% (benefits-ineligible) to 50% or higher (now eligible for benefits); or
You are already eligible for medical and dental benefits as a 50-74% part-time employee but increase to 75-100% work status. This change could result in different premium costs for medical and dental insurance.

Benefit plan information on these web pages is in a summary format and is not intended to replace actual plan documents. UAMS reserves the right to amend or terminate all or any part of any benefit plan.