Another year and another open enrollment period has come to an end. I still have dozens of employees who have not completed their elections and are going to be surprised come January when they find their coverage ended on December 31, 2024. You might ask yourself, “Why not tell them they need to enroll?” To which I shall reply, “Ha!” I’ve sent them several reminders with warnings of what would happen if they didn’t complete open enrollment. In secret I even left the enrollment period open until the next morning just so stragglers could come in at the last second. At some point you just gotta pull the trigger.
But here’s what’s going to happen. These employees will complain and likely go straight to my VP who will cave. In addition to undermining me, why listen to Odesio when the VP will just give us what htey want, it adds quite a bit of extra work for me. The worst part is that I’ll be dealing with 2024 OE issues until March or April. I’ll have employees contacting me asking why they aren’t enrolled in a particular plan, where their HSA funds are, etc., etc. And I’ll have to tell them they didn’t enroll in that plan or the HSA.
Yes! That is one such gadget. He also gave me heel cups and this arch support thingy. I hope this freakin works because I’m very close to sawing my foot off.
I’ve used heel cups (didn’t seem to make much difference, didn’t do any harm) and orthotics (ditto). I have other problems which are helped by orthotics though, so I use them pretty religiously when I’m in closed-toe shoes.
Another recommendation is to never go barefoot. Well, that ain’t gonna fly with me (I’m dangeously clumsy, and likelier to injure myself when wearing shoes), but my husband won’t even go to the bathroom barefoot - he has Crocs or contoured flip-flops that he always wears.
As far as sawing the foot off. Don’t. A) it’ll hurt. A lot. B) it makes SUCH a mess. C) If anyone happens to notice it in the trash, you have to answer SOOOOO many questions. Trust me.
Not that I haven’t been tempted… those of us who suffer from Restless Legs Syndrome are frequently tempted. I once got my husband to hold a hacksaw (with the guard on!!) over my leg so I could take a photo.
I try to wear shoes but I just hate it. My feet want to be free after being contained all day. I did buy crocs which are close to foot freedom but still not the same. These are indoor only crocs.
Ok, I won’t saw my foot off. But I won’t promise to stop thinking about it.
I had the unfortunate experience of plantar fasciitis about 7 years ago. Dear lord it was some of the worst pain ever. And I have had a lot of pain in my life.
I managed for awhile by wrapping an entire ace bandage around my foot so it provided a cushion of sorts. It didn’t help that I was on an out of state vacation when this surfaced so I had to improvise.
The ace bandage cushion helped but I finally went to a doctor.
Had to get a series of steroid injections and she gave me an arch support wrap as well. It finally eased up after about a week but it did take awhile to fully recover. I have thankfully not had a recurrence.
Since then I buy shoes with good arch supports, wear crocs frequently and always pack the ace bandage and the arch support wrap when I travel…just in case.
Plantar fasciitis hack: mostly fill an empty soda bottle with water and freeze. When it’s ice, roll your heel back and forth on it (while reading or watching TV or whatever). Not a cure but it helps.
This is what made it possible for me get out of bed in the morning. I’d roll the roll the arch if my foot on a tennis ball to stretch it enough I could hobble to the kitchen to get the frozen soda bottle and then roll the arch of my foot on it for 15-20 minutes. Repeat several times a day as needed.
I share your disdain for oblivious procrastinating employees.
But I have never worked for an employer, large or small, where active re-enrollment is necessary. It has always been the case that they’ll automatically get next year the same thing they have this year unless they take active steps to order something else. Including opting out altogether.
The one exception being when the employer is changing plan providers. But in that case there was some default plan that everyone would get if they had coverage under the current plan. Only those with no coverage this year would be left out in the cold next year through inaction.
I have a flare up of plantar fasciitis every decade or so. I’ve never sought medical attention, just follow what I’ve read online and it eventually gets better.
Yes, it is painful, but nowhere near as bad as gout.
Passive enrollment comes with its own problems as there are some things we can’t just rollover into the next year including flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts. We want employees to log in, look at their elections, and sign off on them. The vast majority of our thousands of employees managed to accomplish this task with fewer than 50, including some directors, who failed. I’ve already gotten some desperate emails from employees with all sorts of excuses. The truth is we’re going to allow them to enroll, but I’m going to make them jump through hoops for being a pain in my ass.
But yeah, passive reenrollment is trading one set of problems for another, ideally smaller, set of problems. And even then IME, and as you say, there was always something that could not transfer from last year. FSA / HSA deductions being one of them. Perhaps that was a creature of law.
In an odd aside I learned yesterday that for Medicare Supplement (not “Advantage”) plans there is no such thing as open enrollment or life events. You can change policies and vendors at any time for any reason. Who knew?
As I mentioned upthread, I wonder if we’re not part of the same corporate umbrella. Same dates applied for us too. I know I got at least four emails in the last week I was in the office reminding us of open enrollment. I had surgery last week (which is another rant I’ll get around to when I have the energy) so I can only imagine how many emails I have about open enrollment now. And how many messages from co-workers asking me questions even though I have nothing to do with the process.
Today was another routine followup visit to my cardiologist, which occur at intervals of 18 months to two years. I’m always of two minds about these visits. On one hand, he’s a very warm and kind person and has a special place in my heart (pun intended) as only someone could have who has literally saved my life. He’s also extremely knowledgeable and competent, and puts enough slack in his schedule that visits are always leisurely and yet I’ve never known him to run late. Plus, whenever he orders a test, despite having a large staff, he always calls me personally to discuss the results.
So, not exactly a rant, but I still dread these visits because there’s a reason he’s so knowledgeable and competent: he has a scientist’s interest in data – the more data the better. So once again I am due to have Medical Care™ inflicted on me, each event representing some level of inconvenience and discomfort. I am scheduled to visit a vampire who will take blood from me, then visit a sadist who will beat me up pretending to do a heart ultrasound, and finally, I get to have all manner of devices attached to me for 24 hours to monitor everything possible while I try to go about my life and then try to sleep with this thing buzzing and pumping off and on all night.
Which thread on the Dope should I go to in order to rant about the Trump administration’s opening shot in the war on LGBTQ rights? The Speaker Of The House wants trans women banned from using women’s bathrooms, locker rooms etc. He says that they are in fact men. I predicted it would start with trans rights.
In one of the many threads I posted my prediction of doom, I also said I was going through the ordeal of finding a new therapist. I am currently waiting for the start of my first tele health appointment with a new therapist. He takes my insurance. He, obviously, has appointments at 7 pm. Finally, the company he belongs to sends me reminder e-mails that I have an upcoming appointment! So far they have sent one- the day before, the day of, an hour before, a half hour before, and an e-mail saying my appointment is starting now.
Today on our way to work, my husband and I saw that a deer had tried to leap the neighborhood gate. It was impaled, but still alive. We tried to lift it off, but it was too badly injured, so husband put it out of its misery.
I assume everything else that happens today will have to be better than that.
