Invite employees to Thatch
Invite employees to select benefits from the Thatch dashboard. Send invites to all eligible employees at the same time, and as early as possible during the month prior to your coverage start date.
Once invited, employees enroll through Thatch and become the policyholders for their own health plans. As your broker and administrator, Thatch works directly with employees to manage coverage and keep premiums paid. If an employee needs help choosing a plan, they can use Ask Thatch to schedule a call with a licensed advisor during onboarding.
The steps below are for your first enrollment window, and for inviting new hires throughout the year.
We recommend inviting employees one month before their Thatch benefits begin. This allows them enough time to make the important decisions, while still being close enough to their start date that they can select a plan matching their most current health priorities.
Send enrollment invitations
As soon as your Thatch account setup is complete, you can send enrollment invitations to all eligible employees immediately, or schedule them to go out in the future. See the steps that fit your Thatch setup.
- Manual employee management
- Payroll-connected
If you have not connected a payroll system, you can add employees at any time from the Thatch dashboard:
- From the Employees page, click Add employee.
- Enter the employee's information in the form.
- Click Add employee to save.
- Repeat for all employees at your company.
Once employees are added to your roster, you can invite them to Thatch:
- Select the employees you'd like to invite by filtering for eligible employee classes (if applicable) and checking the box next to their name.
- Click Invite selected.
- Choose the appropriate waiting period and enrollment window length.
- Review the coverage dates available to invited employees.
- Click Invite employees.
On the enrollment window start date, Thatch sends emails to the selected employees prompting them to begin the process of opting in or out of Thatch enrollment.
Thatch sends invites to the email addresses on file in Thatch. If those addresses are incorrect, update them before you schedule or send invitations. If an employee does not have access to that email, direct them to contact support@thatch.com.
If you have connected your payroll system, Thatch syncs your newly hired employees in 24–48 hours. Once syncing completes:
- Select the employees you'd like to invite by filtering for eligible employee classes (if applicable) and checking the box next to their name.
- Click Invite selected.
- Choose the appropriate waiting period and enrollment window length.
- Review the coverage dates available to invited employees.
- Click Invite employees.
Waiting periods and enrollment windows
With Thatch, you choose when invitations are sent, and how long employees will receive automated enrollment communications from Thatch. This defines your enrollment window.
| Waiting period | When Thatch sends the email invitation |
|---|---|
| No waiting period | Immediately. |
| 30 or 60 days | On the first of the month before the earliest coverage date. You determine whether the waiting period is calculated from the employment start date, or the current date. Examples: If the employee was hired April 3, a 30 day waiting period ends May 2; the employee will be invited to enroll on May 1 and can have coverage starting June 1. If an employee's start date was in a prior month, Thatch will calculate their waiting period from that date, but invitations cannot be sent in the past — so the earliest invite is today. |
| Manual | On the start date that you select. Example: If you select any day between May 1 and May 28 as the enrollment window start date, the earliest coverage date will be June 1. Following ACA guidelines, the waiting period cannot be greater than 90 days from an eligible employee’s start date. |
After selecting a waiting period option, you’ll choose the enrollment window length:
- 14 days + automatic five-day extension
- 30 days + automatic five-day extension
During the enrollment window
The initial 14 or 30 days is the period when Thatch sends the invitation email and communicates to your employees that the deadline is the 14th or 30th day. Employees who have not enrolled or declined will receive reminder emails and text messages throughout this window.
On the last day of the initial enrollment window, employees who have yet to enroll or decline will be notified of an automatic five-day extension. Once this extension expires, Thatch will stop sending automated enrollment reminders.
It is best practice to notify employees when invitations are sent, and encourage them to take action throughout the enrollment window. See the Enrollment checklist for a full guide.
After the enrollment window
When employees are offered an ICHRA for the first time, they are eligible for a 60-day special enrollment periodSpecial Enrollment Period A time outside the yearly Open Enrollment Period when employees can sign up for health insurance. A SEP is triggered by a qualifying event such as losing health coverage or getting married. (SEP), beginning from the earliest date their coverage can begin. During this time, they can make changes directly from their Thatch dashboard.
After the 60 days, employees can only make changes to their health insurance when they have a qualifying life eventqualifying life event A change in life—such as marriage, birth, or loss of other coverage—that may allow employees to change benefits mid-year. (QLE), which they can initiate from their Thatch dashboard. The next opportunity to change their plan is during the national open enrollment periodOpen Enrollment Period A defined window when employees can make coverage choices without a qualifying event..
Coverage start dates
Individual health insurance begins on the first of the month after the application date (that is, after the employee selects and confirms a plan in Thatch). The health insurance start date cannot be backdated, with a few exceptions that are outlined in the Qualifying life events page.
To ensure Thatch has sufficient time to process applications, the deadline for employees to select a plan in Thatch follows these rules:
| Timing | Deadline to enroll |
|---|---|
| General rule | Two calendar days before the end of the month |
| The first of the month is Monday | Three calendar days before the end of the month |
| January 1 for new members | Three calendar days before the end of the month |
| January 1 for renewing members | 16 calendar days before the end of the month |
Employees who enroll after the deadline can have coverage beginning the first of the month after. For example, a September 29th enrollment has a November 1 coverage start date.
Example timeline:
| March 1 | April 12 | May 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Employee receives invitation | Employee selects a plan | Health coverage begins |
| The employee can begin enrolling. | The employee is within their 60 day special enrollment periodSpecial Enrollment Period A time outside the yearly Open Enrollment Period when employees can sign up for health insurance. A SEP is triggered by a qualifying event such as losing health coverage or getting married., but cannot receive April coverage. | This is the earliest date the employee can have active coverage because they applied in April. |
Employees will see their deadline for first-of-the-next-month coverage in Thatch’s invitation email, subsequent enrollment communications, and in their dashboard as they review their plan options.