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People Experience
  2. Benefits
  3. Benefits eligibility

Benefits eligibility

Vanderbilt offers two levels of benefits, depending on your employment type and how much you work. Read below for more details or see the quick reference chart.

Fully benefits-eligible employees

A fully benefits-eligible employee is one whose appointment is to a regular faculty or staff position (a position with no currently defined or anticipated position end date) or term position (a position with a defined term of six months or more) and who is regularly scheduled to work 30 hours or more per week (at least 75 percent of full time). 

[Note: Neither enrolled students whose work is coincident to their primary role as a student nor temporary employees, are considered fully benefits-eligible but may be partially benefits eligible (see next section).]

Fully benefits-eligible employees may participate in these benefits, in accordance with the legal plan document, summary plan description, or other guiding materials for each program: 

  • Health plan (including prescription drugs)
  • Dental plan
  • Vision plan
  • Flexible spending accounts
  • Life insurance
  • Short- and long-term disability insurance*
  • Accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D) insurance
  • Paid time off (PTO)* and holidays
  • Auto, home, and pet insurance
  • Identity theft protection
  • 403(b) retirement plan

*Faculty and postdocs should refer to their manuals and programs for guidance on leave time. Faculty are not eligible for short-term disability coverage.

You may also cover the following family members in the health, dental, vision, life insurance, and AD&D plans:

  • Legal spouses
  • Natural, step-, or adopted children up to age 26
  • Other qualified dependents, such as disabled children over age 26, with required documentation. (You must contact Vanderbilt People Experience prior to the child's 26th birthday for more information on continuing coverage for disabled children.)

Refer to each plan’s Summary Plan Description for full details of eligibility. 

Aetna automatically issues health plan cards for the ‘default’ health plan option (Aetna Choice CDHP at the employee-only coverage tier) to new fully benefits-eligible employees. To waive coverage or to elect another health plan option and/or cover eligible family members, you must complete New Hire Enrollment in My VU Benefits within 30 days of your hire date.

Benefits while on leave

Your benefit deductions will continue while you are on a paid leave of absence. If you are placed on an unpaid leave of absence (including during short-term disability), you will receive instructions to pay your health plan premiums directly to Vanderbilt’s benefit administration vendor, Empryrean. Your premium will remain the same during this time. If your employment later ends, you will be able to continue your coverage through COBRA, but will be charged the full premium (employee plus employer portions), plus a 2 percent administrative fee.

Refer to the following charts as well as your manual for guidance.

Fully benefits-eligible staff

Benefit

 Takes Effect Enrollment Deadline*
Health, dental and vision Hire date 30 days from your hire date
403(b) retirement plan Your hire date. Visit Vanderbilt’s Retirement page for details. none
Life Insurance Hire date (exempt), 90 days after your hire date (non-exempt) 30 days from date of eligibility
Accidental Death & Dismemberment Hire date (exempt), 90 days after your hire date (non-exempt) 30 days from date of eligibility
Short-term disability

Hire date

30 days from date of eligibility
Long-term disability  First day of the month after 1 year of employment 30 days from date of eligibility
Flexible Spending Accounts  First day of the month following 90 days of employment 30 days from your hire date
Tuition assistance (employee) 90 days from your hire date; Refer to Tuition Assistance website for additional details None

Faculty

Benefit Takes Effect Enrollment Deadline*
Health, dental and vision Hire date 30 days from your hire date
403(b) retirement plan  Your hire date. Mandatory and matching contributions begin automatically. Visit Vanderbilt’s Retirement page for details. None
Life insurance Hire date (exempt), 90 days after your hire date (non-exempt) 30 days from your hire date
Accidental Death & Dismemberment Hire date (exempt), 90 days after your hire date (non-exempt) 30 days from your hire date
Long-term disability  First day of the month after 1 year of employment 30 days from your hire date
Flexible Spending Accounts  First day of the month following 90 days of employment 30 days from your hire date
Tuition assistance (employee) Hire date  None

 Post Docs

Benefit Takes Effect Enrollment Deadline*
Health, dental and vision Hire date 30 days from your hire date
403(b) retirement plan Your hire date. Mandatory and matching contributions begin automatically. Visit Vanderbilt’s Retirement page for details.  none
Life insurance Hire date (exempt), 90 days after your hire date (non-exempt) 30 days from date of eligibility
Accidental Death & Dismemberment Hire date (exempt), 90 days after your hire date (non-exempt) 30 days from date of eligibility
Short-term disability

Hire date

 30 days from date of eligibility
Long-term disability hire date 30 days from your hire date
Flexible Spending Accounts  First day of the month following 90 days of employment 30 days from your hire date
Tuition assistance (employee) 3 months from your hire date; Refer to Tuition Assistance website for additional details None

Partially Benefits-Eligible

Benefit Takes Effect Enrollment Deadline*
Health Hire date 30 days from your hire date
403(b) retirement plan Your hire date. Mandatory and matching contributions begin automatically. Visit Vanderbilt’s Retirement page for details.  None

You may also cover the following family members in the health, dental, vision, life insurance and AD&D plans:

  • Legal spouses
  • Natural, step- or adopted children up to age 26
  • Other qualified dependents, such as disabled children over age 26, with required documentation (You must contact Vanderbilt Human Resources prior to the child's 26th birthday for more information on continuing coverage for disabled children.)

Anytime during the first 30 days of your employment with Vanderbilt. Log into My VU Benefits to sign up. You can access My VU Benefits from the Benefits tab of Vanderbilt’s HR homepage or through Oracle. 

For most benefits, you have 30 days from your hire date or from the date of eligibility. Refer to the chart above for additional benefit deadlines.

Log into My VU Benefits. From the home page, click on "Current Benefits."

This will provide the current coverage details. To see the past coverage, select Benefit History.

You can only make changes to certain benefits if you experience a qualifying life event or during Open Enrollment for the following year. Some common qualifying life events include marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child, death of a covered dependent, termination of employment, or a change in your spouse’s coverage. See the Family Status Change page for more information.

You should get a refund as long as you waived the health plan in My VU Benefits within your 30-day window. If you do not see a refund within one to two pay periods, contact Human Resources.

You may be using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer. My VU Benefits may not function correctly in Internet Explorer 9 or earlier. Try logging into the system in Internet Explorer 10 or higher, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox. If you aren’t able to upgrade or access one of these browsers, please contact Human Resources. 

Partially benefits-eligible employees

Partially benefits-eligible employees are comprised of:

  • Regular faculty working part-time schedules (less than 30 hours per week)
  • Regular and term non-exempt staff who are regularly scheduled to work at least 20, but less than 30 hours per week
  • Temporary faculty such as adjunct, adjoint, in-residence who work 30 hours per week or more on average for a 12-month period
  • Staff such as VTS and flex staff who work 30 hours per week or more on average, for a 12-month period
  • Student workers, including graduate teaching and research assistants, professional students, and undergraduate student workers, who work 30 hours per week or more on average within a 12-month period (although students need prior approval to work such hours, may already have other coverage, and should consider carefully before electing employee health care, even if eligible)

Partially benefits-eligible individuals may participate in these benefit programs, in accordance with the legal plan document, summary plan description, or other guiding materials for each program: 

*Faculty and postdocs should refer to their manuals and programs for guidance on leave time.

You may also cover the following family members in the health care plan:

  • natural, step-, or adopted children up to age 26, and
  • other qualified dependents, such as disabled children over age 26, with required documentation. Coverage beyond the age of 26 may be available if the child is disabled. (You must contact Vanderbilt People Experience prior to the child's 26th birthday for more information on continuing coverage for disabled children.)

Spouses are not eligible. Vanderbilt's Health Plan for partially benefits-eligible employees is optional. You will not be automatically enrolled in a default health plan option.

Children up to age 18 under legal guardianship or custody of the employee must meet the definition of dependent under the Federal Tax Code for income tax purposes and be able to show supporting documentation (such as the employee’s claim of dependency for the child on the relevant portion of your most recent IRS Form 1040 federal income tax return) in order to be eligible under the Plan. Children under legal guardianship or custody, who do not meet eligibility requirements above in (a), will lose their coverage eligibility the first day of the month following the month in which they turn 18 years of age (age of majority).