Benefits Information

FCI employees should refer to these documents to obtain information about benefits coverage, eligibility requirements, and privacy notices for our insurance and retirement plans.

The Open Enrollment period for health insurance, dental insurance, and for setting up a Flexible Spending Account begins Friday, November 1. Enrollment/change forms are due to the business office by 4:00 p.m. on Friday, November 15.

During this period, employees can join or change an insurance plan, add eligible dependents, or drop coverage.

Please see the health insurance benefits, dental insurance benefits, and flexible spending account sections for details about each plan and for enrollment instructions.

We offer two health insurance options: an HMO and a PPO through Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Both plans include prescription drug coverage, annual fitness reimbursement, and discounts on vision, hearing, and other wellness services and supplies.

Health benefits are available at four tiers:

1. Individual employee.
2. Employee plus spouse/domestic partner.
3. Employee plus dependent child(ren).
4. Family, which includes two adults (spouses or domestic partners) and dependent child(ren).

Health insurance benefits are provided by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

With this HMO (health management organization) plan, you are required to get your care from a primary care provider (PCP) who is in Harvard Pilgrim's network. You will need your PCP’s referral for most kinds of specialty care.

With this PPO (preferred provider organization) plan, you may receive care from medical professionals and hospitals in or out of Harvard Pilgrim’s network. Your costs will be lower when you receive care from in-network providers.

This link leads to the machine-readable files that are made available in response to the federal Transparency in Coverage Rule and includes negotiated service rates and out-of-network allowed amounts between health plans and healthcare providers. The machine-readable files are formatted to allow researchers, regulators, and application developers to more easily access and analyze data. It is not intended to be a cost comparison tool for employees and dependents in Five College’s medical plans.

We offer dental benefits for you, as an individual employee, and for your dependent family members. The Delta Dental PPO plan benefits include diagnostic and preventive services, as well as restorative and other basic services.

Dental insurance benefits are provided by Delta Dental.

To help you prepare and pay for your medical expenses in retirement, we have established a Retirement Healthcare Savings Plan (RHSP). We set money aside to help you pay your healthcare costs in retirement, such as health insurance premiums, deductibles and copays; prescription drug costs; Medicare and long-term care premiums.

We contribute to this plan on your behalf, beginning with your first paycheck; FCI's  contributions are available to you after 10 years of continuous employment at FCI. The retiree health insurance plan is available if you have reached age 55 and have been continuously employed at FCI for at least 10 years, or if you are deemed permanently disabled during your employment.

If you meet the retiree health insurance plan eligibility requirements when you separate from employment and qualify for Medicare, you and your eligible dependents may be eligible for benefits. Your spouse/domestic partner and dependents may be eligible for continued benefits after your death.

The Retirement Healthcare Savings Plan is administered by Emeriti Retirement Health and TIAA.

To encourage saving for retirement, we offer a 403(b) retirement plan for regular full-time and regular part-time employees. In support of this goal, you will be automatically enrolled upon hire (you may choose to decline). 

After one year of employment, we will match your biweekly contributions 2:1, up to a maximum match of 10%. That is, if you contribute 5% of your biweekly pay, we will contribute 10%. You may change the amount (or percentage) you contribute and you may choose to contribute more than 5%; however, FCI will not provide matching funds on any additional contributions beyond 5%.

FCI investments are administered by TIAA and monitored by a certified advisor and by the FCI Employee 403(b) Fiduciary Committee. 

This video provides an overview of FCI's retirement plan.

At no cost to you, FCI offers Basic Term Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance equal to your annual salary. This benefit is for employees who sustain injuries that keep them from working; the benefit can also apply to funeral expenses. 

At your cost, you have the option to increase your life insurance coverage (“buy up”) to 2 or 3 times your salary; you may also purchase life insurance for a dependent spouse or dependent child.

Life and AD&D Insurance benefits are administered by Lincoln Financial.

The Flexible Spending Account (FSA) is available to you even if you are not enrolled in one of FCI's health plans. With a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), you can set aside pre-tax dollars for eligible health-related expenses or for eligible dependent care expenses. Each year you decide how much will be deducted from your paycheck, up to the maximum determined by the IRS. With the tax savings, you can increase your spendable income.

The health FSA covers eligible health-related expenses for you and your dependents, which may include health plan co-pays, deductibles, dental care, and certain medical supplies.

The dependent care FSA allows you to be reimbursed for eligible dependent care expenses for a qualifying dependent 12 years old or younger (or a physically or mentally impaired dependent age 13 or older) so that you or your spouse may work, look for work, or attend school full time.

Open enrollment for the plan year (January-December) usually occurs in November.

The FSA is administered by American Benefits Group.

To assist the employees and family members covered by one of FCI's health plans, we offer a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA). It is designed to help offset what you pay out-of-pocket toward your health plan's annual deductible.

The HRA cover the first 50% of deductible costs for those with individual plans and the first 50% of deductible costs for those with two-party and family plans.

The HRA is similar to the Flexible Savings Account (FSA). However, the HRA uses employer-funded dollars while the FSA uses employee-funded dollars.

To maximize your benefits, you can use the Health Reimbursement Arrangement for the first half of your deductible and then apply Flexible Saving Account funds to the rest of the deductible and for medical costs not included in the deductible.

The HRA is administered by American Benefits Group.