Graduate Student Employee Insurance & Benefits

UT Dallas > Office of Human Resources > Employees > Benefits > Insurance > Graduate Student Employee Insurance & Benefits

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New RA/TA UT SHIP Funding Effective August 1, 2022.

For questions about the UTD Student Health Insurance Plan, please contact RATASHIP@UTDALLAS.EDU 

For questions about the UTD Employee Benefits, please email benefits@utdallas.edu.

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Overview

This page contains information for graduate students currently working 20 hours/week or expecting to be hired for at least 20 hours/week as a Research Assistant (RA), Teaching Assistant (TA), or Graduate Assistant (GA). If that applies to you, please keep in mind you are in a hybrid role due to your student status and benefits eligible employee status. This means you are eligible for two different categories of benefits: Student Benefits, and Employee Benefits.

Virtual Benefits Express Summer 2024

If you are a Summer 2024 RATA new hire/rehire, hired to work at least 20 hours/week, we invite you to attend our Virtual Benefits Express event on May 30, 2024, from 11:00am – 12:30pm, to learn about your opportunity to enroll and enjoy free dental, vision, and ad&d benefits! An overview on your options along with details on how to complete your enrollment will be presented. We will also have the Bursar RATASHIP Team copresenting on the SHIP Enrollment process. To attend, please register here. For those unavailabe during this time, we will be recording the presentation and posting it here after the event.

Eligibility & Resources

Employee Benefits:

Eligibility for Employee Benefits: Always contingent on your employment status as an RA/TA/GA hired to work at least 20 hours/week. If you are hired to work less than 20 hours/week, you are not eligible for employee benefits.

Resources: You can contact the HR Benefits team at benefits@utdallas.edu for your questions regarding enrollment, and employee benefits. You can also call 972-883-2221 and ask to speak to a member of the Benefits Team.

Graduate Student Benefit Options:

Employee Medical Plan Options

  • Although your employment status qualifies you for the employee medical plan UT SELECT, please know the employee medical plan is not free like the SHIP plan.
  • If you are curious how the employee plan compares to the SHIP plan, you can review our quick at-a-glance summary to compare the three plans side-by-side
  • The cost for the employee medical plan would be deducted from your employee paycheck every month. If you prefer to pay for the employee medical plan instead of keeping the free SHIP plan, you will need to submit a waiver for the free SHIP, and enroll in the employee option.

Premium Sharing Plan Option

If you prefer to keep your automatic enrollment in the free UTD SHIP plan for your medical coverage, or you already have other outside medical group coverage such as insurance provided through your parent’s employer, or spouse’s employer, or TRICARE, you may be eligible for the Premium Sharing Credit plan. This is a benefit available to employees who waive the UTD employee medical plan, and offers you an opportunity to have free employee dental, vision, and ad&d benefits!

Employee Premium Sharing Credit Plan Offers $181.45/Month in Credits – How Does it Work?

What is the Premium Sharing Plan?

This is a benefit offered to benefits-eligible UTD employees who choose not to enroll in the employee medical plan because you already have coverage under the UTD SHIP plan, or possibly covered under another group plan such as your parent’s or spouse’s employer medical coverage, or TRICARE. Individual policies or coverage purchased through the Marketplace Exchange do not qualify for this benefit. For those who qualify, as a part-time, benefits-eligible employee, you have access to $181.45/month in premium sharing credits.

What can I use the premium sharing credits for, if I qualify?

These credits can only be used to pay for the cost of your UTD employee dental, vision, and accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D) benefits. They are never paid out on a paycheck, and unused or leftover credits are null and void. Based on the number of dependents you add, and which plans you elect, often times the premium sharing credits are more than enough for you to have the most expensive dental, vision, and AD&D plans with $0 out-of-pocket cost to you! If you are interested in this option, and enrolled in UTD SHIP, you can enroll and not be required to provide proof of SHIP. However, if you are interested in this option and have coverage through an outside group medical plan, you will be required to upload proof such as a copy of your ID card, or benefits statement.

Summer Insurance Coverage for Graduate Student Employees (RA/TA/GA)

If you are a benefits-eligible RA/TA/GA for the spring semester and your RA/TA/GA position ends in May, then your employee benefits coverage will end as of May 31. Your employee benefits are always contingent on your employment status and require a minimum of 20-29 hours/week to continue eligibility. You must be assigned in a benefits-eligible position during the summer months of June, July and August, to be eligible for summer employee insurance coverage. If you go on summer break or drop below the 20 hours/week threshold, and later return as a RA/TA/GA once again in the fall semester working 20 hours/week, you would be just like a new employee with a new 31-day window as of your rehire date, and would need to re-enroll in your employee benefits to have coverage.

Annual Enrollment

Employees who remain benefits eligible during the summer months will have an opportunity to participate in UTD’s Annual Enrollment on July 15-31 each year. Annual Enrollment is your once-a-year opportunity to make changes to your employee benefits which will then be effect for the new plan year, beginning on September 1 and concluding the following August 31.

In July each year, all benefits-eligible employees will receive important information regarding Annual Enrollment via e-mail. In addition, details for Annual Enrollment will be posted on the Annual Enrollment page. It is recommended that you make an Annual Enrollment election even if you are unsure if you will have benefits-eligible employment in the fall.

Change of Status Events

If you experience a change of status or “qualifying life event” (QLE), per IRS guidelines you can make changes to your benefits outside the Annual Enrollment period. QLE’s are time-sensitive and need to be reported within 31-days via your My UT Benefits member portal online. If you do not make your eligible changes during the 31-day status change period, your changes cannot be made until the next Annual Enrollment in July, to be effective the following September 1. Please keep in mind that in order to complete your change of status request, you will be required to upload the following documents:

  • Documentation that supports your change of status (such proof of loss of coverage or proof of new UTD SHIP coverage)
  • Proof of Relationship Documents that support any added dependents (such as a birth or marriage certificate)

The list below includes common examples of qualified Change of Status events:

  • Employment change from non-benefits eligible to part-time or full-time benefits eligible
  • Loss of outside coverage
  • Gain of new UTD Student Health Insurance Plan coverage
  • Marriage, divorce
  • birth, adoption

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if I’m eligible for the employee plans or the UTD Student Health plan?

Graduate students who are scheduled to work at least 20-29 hours/week as a Teaching Assistant (TA), Research Assistant (RA) or Graduate Assistant (GA), working a minimum 4.5 months qualify for part-time employee benefits. For information on credit hours required for the UTD Student Health Insurance Plan eligibility, contact the SHIP office at stuhealthinsurance@utdallas.edu or RATASHIP@utdallas.edu or 972-883-2747.

I’m eligible for both the employee medical plan, and also the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) based on my course credits. What’s the difference between these plans?

You can refer to our quick at-a-glance comparison of the two employee medical plans and the SHIP plan.

What’s the deadline to enroll in the UTD employee benefits?

Employees have 31 days from their hire date to enroll in benefits.

What happens if I miss my 31-day deadline for employee benefits?

You will not have any employee benefits, and your next opportunity to make changes to your benefits will be during the Annual Enrollment period (July 15-July 31). The exception would be if you experience a “qualifying life event” (QLE) such as getting married, divorced, having a baby, change in employment status, loss of coverage, etc. If you experience a QLE, you have 31 days from the date of your event to make changes to your employee benefits.

I’m not interested in the employee medical plan because I have medical coverage through SHIP or another group employer plan through my spouse or parents, what are my options?

If you choose to waive the UT Select or UT Connect Employee Medical Plan due to having outside coverage under another group health insurance program (i.e. covered through your spouse’s employer, UT SHIP, or on your parent’s employer plan), you may be eligible to enroll in our Premium Sharing plan which gives our part-time (working 20-29 hours per week) employees $181.45/ per month in credits. These credits can only be used to cover your cost for employee dental, vision, and accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D) coverage. To give you an idea of what the credits can offer, if you are providing coverage for yourself only, the credits are more than enough to cover the cost of the most expensive dental and vision coverage, and the maximum AD&D benefit, which means you would receive those benefits for free.

I don’t have coverage through SHIP or a group employer plan. My outside medical coverage is an individual policy that I purchased on the Marketplace Exchange. Am I still eligible for the premium sharing benefits for free dental, vision and AD&D?

Unfortunately, individual policies, or plans from the marketplace are not eligible for premium sharing benefits.

When and how can I enroll for my employee benefits?

Once your employment record is complete in the PeopleSoft HR system, you will receive an Initial Enrollment notification via email from benefits@utdallas.edu with a link to My UT Benefits.  You may log in to My UT Benefits using your UT Dallas Net ID and Password. You have 31 days from your hire or rehire date (start date of employment) to enroll for your employee benefits as a part-time RA/TA/GA. If you do not log in to the system and enroll, you will not have coverage for the Plan Year.

If I stop working as an RA/TA/GA over the summer break, or if my hours drop below 20 hours/week, what happens to my employee benefits?

Your employee benefits are contingent on your employment status. If you go on break over the summer and do not work, or if your hours drop below the 20 hours/week minimum threshold, you will lose your employee benefits. If you lose your benefits in the summer or your hours drop, and you later return to work in the fall semester as an RA/TA/GA for the minimum 20 hours, you would be just like a new hire with a new 31-day window to re-enroll in benefits. Enrollment in the employee benefits would not be automatic if you return in the future as part-time benefits eligible RA/TA/GA.

If I enroll in the employee benefits, how long do I have to use my benefits?

The UTD employee benefits plan year runs from September 1 to August 31 every year. The benefits reset every September 1. If you remain in your current benefits-eligible employment position and enroll in the employee benefits with no break in employment status, you would have until August 31 to use your current plan year employee benefits.