Open Enrollment Checklist: What to Change and What to Check After

Open Enrollment Checklist: What to Change, and the Confirmation to Check After

An open enrollment checklist for job-based benefits has two halves. Before you submit: what changed in your family this year, whether your plan or its price changed, how much to put in your FSA or HSA, and who is listed as a dependent and beneficiary. After you submit: save the confirmation statement, and check your first paycheck in January to see that the deductions match what you picked. Most guides stop at the first half. The second half is where mistakes show up.

Why open enrollment needs a checklist at all

Open enrollment at work is the one window a year when you can change your health, dental and vision plans, your flexible spending account, and who is covered, without a special reason. Outside it, a job-based plan has to let you change only after a qualifying life event such as a birth, a marriage or losing other coverage, and HealthCare.gov says that Special Enrollment Period must be at least 30 days. Miss both, and the choices you made stay in place for a full plan year.

The dates of your window come from your employer, usually in an email from HR. If you also buy Marketplace or Medicare coverage for someone in the family, those windows are listed in our guide to open enrollment 2026 deadlines. This page is about the decisions.

Before you submit: the checklist

Go through it in this order. Each step changes what the next one should be.

1. Write down what changed this year

Start with life, not with plans. A new baby, a marriage or divorce, a child turning 26, a move, a new diagnosis, a planned surgery, a spouse who changed jobs. Each one can change which plan makes sense and who should be on it.

2. Compare your plan with next year's version

Plans change every year, even when the name stays the same. In the enrollment materials, look at four numbers side by side: what comes out of each paycheck, the deductible, the out-of-pocket maximum, and the copays you actually use. Check that your doctors and the medicines you take are still covered.

3. Re-elect your FSA amount

A health FSA election usually does not roll over by itself. If you want one next year, you pick the amount again. For 2026 the IRS cap was $3,400, with up to $680 carried over if your plan allows carryover. The IRS had not announced the 2027 FSA limit as of October 16, 2026; your enrollment page shows the number that applies to you.

HealthCare.gov's page on flexible spending accounts explains the catch: you generally must use the money within the plan year, and your employer may offer either a grace period of up to 2½ months or a carryover, not both. Size the amount to costs you can predict, like glasses, regular prescriptions or a planned procedure. If you still have money left this year, our guide to the FSA deadline covers how to use it.

4. If you have an HSA plan, set the contribution

If you pick a high-deductible plan with a health savings account, decide how much goes in each paycheck. For 2027 the IRS limits are $4500 for self-only coverage and $9000 for family coverage.

5. Check dependents and beneficiaries

Make sure everyone who should be covered is listed, with the right birth dates and Social Security numbers. Then open the life insurance and retirement beneficiary screens, which are often on a different page. These are easy to forget after a marriage, divorce or a new child.

6. Look at your retirement percentage while you are there

Many employers put the 401(k) screen in the same portal. For 2026 the IRS limit for employee contributions is $24,500. If you meant to raise your percentage this year, do it now.

After you submit: the confirmation to keep

Here is the part most checklists leave out. Submitting is not the same as being enrolled in what you meant to pick. Portals time out, a dependent fails to attach, an FSA amount is typed with a zero missing.

Save the confirmation statement

Many benefits portals show a summary page or send a confirmation email when you finish. Save it as a PDF or take a screenshot. Read it once more: plan names, who is covered, FSA and HSA amounts, and the cost per paycheck. If something is wrong, you can usually still fix it before the window closes. After it closes, fixing it can be much harder.

Check your first paycheck in January

The first pay stub of the new year is the real test. Put it next to your confirmation and look at three lines:

Medical, dental and vision deductions match the plans and tier you picked (for example, employee plus family).
FSA or HSA deductions match your annual amount divided by the number of paychecks.
401(k) percentage is the one you set.

If a number does not match, contact HR or your benefits administrator right away, with the confirmation statement attached. That is why you saved it.

Let Tracy keep the window and the follow-up

The open enrollment email arrives in the middle of everything else, and the paycheck check happens two months later, when you have forgotten what you picked. Tracy, the assistant in dEssence, is built for exactly that gap.

Paste the HR email or send a screenshot of it to Tracy in Telegram, Chrome or on the web. She reads the dates of the window and keeps them with the email. Ask her to remind you a few days before it closes, and she does. When you finish, send her the confirmation statement too. Ask her to remind you in mid-January to check your paycheck, and she will come back with the plan and the amounts you picked, so you can compare without digging for the PDF.

She does not log into your benefits portal or your payroll, and she does not pick a plan for you. You make the choices; she keeps them and the dates in one place.

Frequently asked questions

What should I check during open enrollment?

Check four things: what changed in your life this year, whether your plan and its price changed, your FSA or HSA amount, and your dependents and beneficiaries. Then save the confirmation and compare it with your first paycheck of the new year.

Do I have to re-enroll in my FSA every year?

Usually yes. A health FSA election generally does not carry over to the next plan year by itself, so you choose the amount again during open enrollment. Your benefits materials say how your plan handles it.

What happens if I miss open enrollment at work?

Your current choices usually continue, or you stay without coverage if you had none, until the next open enrollment. You can change mid-year only after a qualifying life event, and job-based plans must give you at least 30 days to do it.

How do I know my open enrollment choices went through?

Look for a confirmation statement in the portal or by email right after you submit, and save it. Then check the deductions on your first paycheck of the new year. If they do not match, contact HR with the confirmation.

Can I change my benefits after open enrollment ends?

Only if you have a qualifying life event, such as a birth, marriage, divorce or loss of other coverage. Report it within the window your plan gives you, which is at least 30 days for job-based plans.