Demographic Change Enhancements (External) and Social Security Number Letter

November 26, 2024
Circular Letter: 600-042-24
Topic: Health Benefits

To: All CalPERS Health Benefits Officers and Assistant Health Benefits Officers

Purpose

The purpose of this Circular Letter is to inform you of a recent system enhancement that allows employers to update or correct dependent demographics, including dependent type. This Circular Letter also provides information on member communications regarding unreported Social Security numbers (SSN) for dependents.

Edit Demographics

Previously, business partners could only update a dependent’s SSN. Business partners can now modify all dependent demographics. This includes a dependent’s: name, date of birth, gender, relationship to the subscriber, and dependent type. A system-generated notice — Confirmation of Personal and Demographic Update — will be mailed to the dependent notifying them of the change the same day the change is made. It is the employer’s responsibility to maintain active employee and dependent records. Linked below is the updated myCalPERS Health Enrollment student guide that provides instructions on how to update this information in myCalPERS.

Autogenerated SSN Letter

The Affordable Care Act requires a Social Security number to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service for health coverage and tax reporting purposes. In addition, Social Security numbers serve as a unique identifier that helps manage health insurance coverage, claims, and benefits. Without accurate Social Security numbers, health plans may encounter challenges in providing proper and timely services. To ensure that the correct information is on file and relayed to the health plans, an autogenerated letter will be mailed to employees six months after a dependent without an SSN is added to their health insurance. This will not include spouses or domestic partners enrolled with no SSN. A spouse or domestic partner enrolled without an SSN is usually a noncitizen who was born in another country and is not eligible for an SSN. If after the first notice of no SSN is provided for the dependent, the system will generate a final request notice 90 days after the initial letter.

Additional Resources

We encourage you to review the following guides for more information on how to update dependent demographics and dependent types:

Questions

If you have questions, call our CalPERS Customer Contact Center at 888 CalPERS (or 888-225-7377888-225-7377).

Yesenia Croft
Health Account Management Division

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