What are Flex Plan Contributions?

You have multiple ways of defining contributions for a flex benefit plan that may result in negative, zero, or positive employee costs. How you define contributions depends on how you want to set up the costs of the plan, how you want the cost of a plan to print on election forms, and how you want costs to appear on employee paychecks.

Below are two ways of defining contributions:

  • credits offset by an employee cost

  • the net effect of the contribution

Regardless of how you define contributions, the result at benefit entry is the same. You can define contributions in a similar way on rate tables.

Example of Credits Offset by Employee Cost and Net Effect

The examples illustrate how you can offset flex credits by an employee cost to result in a negative, zero, or positive employee cost.

  • If an employee elects single coverage, he or she receives $1,000 flex credits and pays $500, so he or she receives a net $500 flex credits. This example shows a negative employee cost.

  • If an employee elects single + spouse coverage, he or she receives $1,000 flex credits and pays $1,000. This examples shows a zero employee cost.

  • If an employee elects family coverage, he or she receives $1,000 flex credits, and pays $1,500, so he or she pays a net $500. This example shows a positive employee cost.

When you enroll an employee in a plan with a negative contribution, the entry form displays the plan's pretax contribution as a negative number.