Today—Wednesday, May 18—is the last day for classified staff to enroll for benefits.

All state employees must actively enroll for coverage, whether they are requesting any changes to their policy or not.

In an open letter to all state employees, Gov. Bill Owens writes, "For those who haven't already done so, one of the most important priorities for State employees this week is to complete their on-line benefits enrollment for the new 2005-06 plan year….If you fail to enroll before your deadline, you will be without the health, dental and flex spending benefits available to eligible State employees—and there will be no updated record of your life insurance beneficiaries."

The state has implemented several changes to its benefits plan this year. First, it has moved the benefits cycle to the fiscal year, to better align with the state's budgetary process; the new FY06 benefits plan year will be from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006.

Second, the state is implementing a "positive open enrollment" this year. This means that anyone who wants medical, dental or FSA coverage in FY06 must actively elect that coverage. There will be no default coverage, and current coverage will not roll forward. The state has asked even those who do not want state coverage to access the system, to actively reject coverage and answer a few questions, the answers to which will help them with better plan designs in future years.

For assistance in the process, call the hotline at 1-800-436-1980. To access the open enrollment benefits page, go to www.colorado.gov/dpa/dhr/benefits.