A guide for new employees and internal transfers
Benefits Overview
As part of your total rewards package, Ohio State is proud to provide access to high-quality benefits that support your health and financial goals. As a newly eligible employee, this page will help you navigate your benefit options and related enrollment deadlines.
Important Deadlines
You have a 30-day enrollment deadline for most of your health and welfare benefits. For the Alternative Retirement Plan, you have a 120-day deadline. It’s crucial to understand your options and these timelines so you don’t miss out on important coverage. Learn more under the Enrollment Deadlines section.
Your Next Steps
To help you feel confident in your choices, we highly recommend attending the New Hire Retirement and Health & Welfare Benefits Webinar. This is your chance to learn directly from our benefits experts, ask questions and get all the information you need to make informed decisions about your health plans and retirement options.
Ready to dive in? The Benefit Information section below breaks down all you need to know about your new benefits. The Additional Resources section is where you will find links to benefits presentations and webinars, required notices, enrollment steps, rates, and Workday, the online portal for making your benefit elections.
Note: If you are a student employee, please visit our Student Employee Benefits page for more specific information.
Benefit Information
Ohio State uses employee classifications along with full-time equivalency (FTE) and appointment type (Regular, Term or Temporary) to define benefits eligibility. Use the interactive Benefits Eligibility Tool to see a list of available benefits based on the criteria you select.
Information about dependents who are eligible to be covered under Ohio State’s health care benefits (medical, dental or vision) is available on the Dependent Eligibility Requirements page.
If you enroll a dependent in health coverage (medical, dental and/or vision), you will receive two information requests that require your response:
- A dependent eligibility verification packet will be mailed to your home address following enrollment. Failure to provide complete documentation by the specified deadline will result in coverage termination for any dependent(s) not verified.
- A Coordination of Benefits request will also be emailed and mailed to your home address from Luminare Health. It requires information about other medical coverage in which your dependents may be enrolled. If a spouse or dependent child are covered by more than one plan, employees will be asked for additional information to determine which plan is primary to ensure accurate claim payments.
Ohio State offers a choice of medical plans that includes a prescription drug program. All medical plans provide 100% coverage for both preventive care services and primary care office visits with network providers.
Dental coverage provides preventive, diagnostic and restorative care as well as orthodontia services for children.
Vision coverage provides an annual vision exam and corrective lenses. Both plans offer the choice of network and non-network providers.
Ohio State offers tools and resources to help address complex issues that can be affecting your mental and emotional well-being. EAP services are also available to benefits-eligible faculty and staff’s immediate families, members of their household and parents and parents-in-law.
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) are optional benefits that allow you to set aside pre-tax money to pay for eligible health care and/or dependent care expenses.
YP4H, Ohio State’s wellness program, provides benefits-eligible employees and their medical plan-enrolled spouses, a variety of wellness services and resources, such as biometric screenings, health coaching, care coordination, flu vaccinations and more. Participants can also earn financial incentives and medical premium credits.
University employees must participate in one of the state retirement programs.
Faculty may participate in one of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS) plans. Staff may participate in one of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) plans. Full-time faculty and staff (75% or greater FTE) may elect the Alternative Retirement Plan (ARP) in lieu of one of the state plans.
Supplemental Retirement Accounts (SRAs) allow employees to enhance retirement plan savings through voluntary pre-tax contributions. An election to contribute to a 403(b) or 457(b) plan may be made at any time.
The university offers various life insurance benefits.
Group Term Life Insurance (GTLI)
This benefit provides 2.5 times an employee’s regular annual base pay (maximum benefit of $250,000) in the event of the employee’s death. It also provides an accidental death benefit of an additional 2.5 times the employee’s regular annual base pay (maximum benefit of $250,000). GTLI is subject to an age reduction formula beginning at age 65.
Voluntary Group Term Life Insurance (VGTLI)
VGTLI is available for employees and eligible dependents. VGTLI coverage can be elected in addition to GTLI.
The university offers various disability programs.
Long-Term Disability (LTD)
University-paid long-term disability coverage provides a benefit of 60% of base pay up to $5,000 per month after a 90-day elimination period.
Short-Term Disability (STD)
Enrollment in short-term disability reduces the elimination period under LTD from 90 calendar days to 30 days. STD is a voluntary benefit an employee may purchase.
Individual Disability Insurance (IDI)
IDI provides an individual policy that helps insure income not covered by the LTD policy for faculty and staff earning more than $100,000 in annual base pay.
Eligible employees are offered Faculty and Staff Tuition Assistance that pays instructional, general and non-Ohio resident fees for courses taken at Ohio State, not to exceed specified plan limits on credit hours and dollar amounts.
Eligible employees can apply for Dependent Tuition Assistance that pays a portion of the instructional and general fees for courses taken by their eligible dependents at Ohio State.
The Ohio State University Adoption Assistance Plan reimburses eligible employees a combined lifetime maximum of adoption/surrogacy benefit of $10,000 per employee/family for eligible adoption-related expenses after the adoption of a minor child is finalized. If two adopting parents of the same adopted child are both eligible for adoption assistance, the total maximum benefit amount for that adoption is $10,000 and the maximum reimbursement applies jointly. For more information, see the Family Building benefits page.
Leave – University faculty and staff may be eligible for paid holidays, vacation, sick leave and parental leave, as well as time off for jury duty and court appearances. We also offer organ donation leave and vacation donation programs. Other time-off programs include family and medical leave, military leave and disaster leave.
Employee Discounts – Staff and faculty are eligible for discounts on the products and services offered at many local and national retailers and businesses.
Child Care Program – Ohio State is proud to offer nationally accredited on-site child care and early education to children of students and university employees.
Appreciation and Recognition – Ohio State recognizes retirement and service milestones, and distinguished service by faculty and staff. The university also sponsors an annual faculty and staff appreciation week.
Professional Development – Professional development opportunities include free online courses in BuckeyeLearn, career development grants, manager development grants, stretch assignments and engagement with leaders and peers.
Tobacco-Free University – To support a healthy environment for all members of Buckeye Nation, Ohio State is tobacco-free.
Personal Banking – As the Official Consumer Bank of The Ohio State University, Huntington offers Buckeye Banking™ to Ohio State faculty and staff.
