Open Enrollment is your annual opportunity to review, update, and make changes to your benefits for the upcoming year. This year’s Open Enrollment period runs Monday, November 3, 2025 through Friday, November 14, 2025. All changes made during this time will take effect in the upcoming plan year on January 1, 2026.

This is your chance to confirm your benefit elections, review plan updates, and ensure your selections best support your personal and family needs for the year ahead. Once Open Enrollment closes, changes cannot be made unless you experience a qualified life event such as marriage, birth or adoption, or loss of coverage.

Click here to review the 2026 Benefits Guide and make informed decisions.

Medical Plan Costs:

While overall rates have increased, CCA is covering a significant portion of the increase—funding an average of 91% of total plan costs, including dependents.

• Kaiser benefit summaries
• Blue Shield benefit summaries

New Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Provider:

We’re excited to introduce Magellan Healthcare as our new Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider! Beginning January 2026, Magellan will offer a variety of emotional, financial, legal, and wellbeing resources—available at no cost to you and your household members. Through Magellan, employees will have access to:

Counseling/Virtual Therapy

• Access a nationwide network of licensed counselors for support with challenges.
• Up to eight (8) free counseling sessions per issue, per year.
• 24/7 confidential counseling and support for you and your household members.
• Virtual therapy provided by Betterhelp

Digital Emotional Wellbeing

• Access to Magellan’s Digital Emotional Wellbeing program, powered by NeuroFlow, designed to help strengthen your mind-body connection and improve emotional resilience.

Work-Life Services

Receive expert guidance in information and personalized referrals to service providers in the following areas:

• Adult Care & Aging
• Child Care & Parenting
• Daily Living
• Education
• Pet Ownership
• Moving
• Pregnancy & Adoption
• Special Needs
• Relationships

Financial Wellbeing

• Meet with a Money Coach to review financial goals and create actionable plans.
• Take an online financial health assessment and explore how money impacts your overall wellbeing.

Legal Services

• Receive one free 60-minute consultation per issue, per year, either by phone or in person, for a wide range of legal concerns.

Coaching for Personal Growth

• To support you staying on track as you tackle a variety of challenges such as stress management, healthy habits, personal improvement, and weight management.
• Employees can schedule up to six (6) coaching sessions per year.

Magellan’s EAP services are designed to help you live and work at your best—empowering you with resources that support your mental, emotional, and everyday wellbeing. See flyer for more details.

We will host information sessions in December introducing the features of Magellan’s EAP. Please do not contact Magellan prior to December to make appointments as we will not be in their “system” until that time.

Commuter Benefits:

• Contribution limits increased to $340/month for 2026. Learn more about how to take advantage of commuter benefits here.

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA):

FSAs allow you to set aside pre-tax dollars for eligible healthcare and dependent care expenses.

• Healthcare FSA: Contribution limit increases to $3,400 in 2026.
  • Explore eligible expenses here and/or shop approved products directly from the FSA Store.
  • You can carry over up to $660 from any balance remaining as of December 31, 2025 into the 2026 plan year and $680 for 2026 balances into 2027. Any remaining balance will be forfeited.
  • You must re-enroll in Workday each year if you wish to continue participating.
• Dependent Care FSA: Contribution limit increased to $7,500 per household for 2026.

High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) Update:

The IRS increased the minimum deductible for an individual within a family to $3,400 for 2026.

• If you’re enrolled in a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), you’re eligible to open or contribute to a Health Savings Account (HSA)—a powerful tax-advantaged way to save for medical expenses now and in the future. Your HSA funds roll over year to year and stay with you even if you change jobs or retire.

Important Notes for Employees Age 65+ with an HDHP and HSA:

• Once you enroll in any part of Medicare (A, B, or D), you are no longer eligible to contribute to an HSA.
• Because Medicare Part A coverage is retroactive up to six months, stop HSA contributions six months before applying for Medicare.
• You can still use existing HSA funds tax-free to pay for qualified expenses, including Medicare premiums, deductibles, and prescriptions.
• Withdrawals remain tax-free for eligible expenses at any age. Non-qualified withdrawals after age 65 are taxed as income but not penalized.
• If you begin receiving Social Security benefits, you’ll be automatically enrolled in Medicare Part A, which ends HSA contribution eligibility.

To learn more about the benefits of an HDHP or HSA, check out this video or visit this resource page from WEX for additional details.

Dental and Vision Enhancements:

• Blue Shield will continue to be our dental providers. You can access a wide network of providers at blueshieldca.com.
• The VSP Vision Plan now includes anti-reflective lens upgrades at no additional cost, along with the LightCare benefit, which provides coverage for non-prescription sunglasses or blue-light glasses. For more details on this plan, checkout the summary here.

Retirement Limit Updates:

If you are enrolled in the catch-up for 2025, your contributions will carry over to 2026 for both your 403(b) pre-tax and Roth plans. We encourage you to review the 2026 IRS maximum deferral limit based on ages attained in the calendar year and make adjustments accordingly through open enrollment task.

Beginning in January 2026, as part of the Secure Act 2.0, if you earned over $145,000 in the previous calendar year (2025), the IRS requires your catch-up contributions to be in the form of Roth.

Increase your Supplemental Life Insurance:

If you are already participating in the Supplemental Life Insurance plan, you can increase your coverage during Open Enrollment by $10,000 for yourself or $5,000 for your spouse, up to the guarantee issue of $130,000 for self/$25,000 for spouse/domestic partner, without providing Proof of Good Health. If you would like to increase above the guarantee issue, you can do so by logging in to Workday and then completing and submitting the Proof of Good Health form, which will be emailed to you after Open Enrollment.

We want to make you aware of more affordable options.

Cost Saving Options

• Blue Shield HMO Members - Did you know the TRIO has the same benefits as the HMO with much lower contributions? For those enrolled in the Blue Shield HMO, you may be able to keep the exact same benefits with the exact same provider but save a significant amount by changing to the Blue Shield TRIO plan.

CLICK HERE to see if your medical provider* is already in the Blue Shield TRIO plan!

*Network subject to change. Please contact Blue Shield or your provider to confirm network status.

• HDHP continues to be an affordable option. CCA will continue to make a generous contribution to the health savings account (HSA) for the Blue Shield PPO and Kaiser High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs), with no premium costs to employees. As a reminder, CCA will deposit 50% of the annual election in January with the remainder deposited in July.

Two virtual information sessions are being offered on different dates and times to help employees learn more about benefit options and upcoming changes. Employees are encouraged to select the session that works best for their schedule. A presentation of benefits will be provided, and representatives from each carrier will be available to answer individual questions.

• Option 1:
  • When: Tuesday, November 4 | 12:00–2:00 p.m.
  • Where: Zoom ID 923 3146 9933 or click this link

Or

• Option 2:
  • When: Thursday, November 6 | 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
  • Where: Zoom ID 922 6061 7697 or click this link

For those who were unable to attend, you may view a recording here.

You can find written instructions here as well as a video on how to complete your Open Enrollment Workday task.

All changes and elections must be submitted through Workday by November 14. Once submitted, you will see a confirmation page—be sure to click Print to keep a copy for your records.

If you need to make edits after submitting, you can do so within the Open Enrollment window by going to your Personal -> Benefits and Pay Hub, selecting Needs Attention, and clicking Edit under your Benefit Event.

If you have questions or need assistance during Open Enrollment, please reach out to the CCA Benefits Support Center at benefits@cca.edu or by calling 415-703-9550 and select Option 1.

Check out other benefits on our CCA benefits page.