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Saginaw Valley State University

Office of Human Resources

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Support Staff Benefits

SVSU Support Staff Employees are eligible to receive a variety of benefits including Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Disability, Retirement and more.  Benefits will begin the 1st of the month after hire date. Learn about your options below.

New employees enrolling in benefits are reminded of the necessary information for completion of the following:

  • Medical Coverage – all family members (spouse and/or dependents) listed on the plans must have corresponding Social Security numbers and dates(s) of birth.  Also required, a copy of the marriage license and/or birth certificates for covered dependents.
  • Beneficiary information must include name, address, Social Security numbers(s) and dates(s) of birth.
  • Glossary of Health Coverage and Medical Terms (123KB)  

PLEASE COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING FORMS

  • Flexible Spending Account Overview (33KB) - If enrolling in Flexible Spending Accounts, determine annual contributions for dependent/child care and/or health care accounts.

Rates & Plan Comparisons

MESSA Medical Plans

  • Your Rights and Protection Against Surprise Billing Notice (195KB) 
  • Payer Transparency Files
    • According to the Federal Government’s Transparency in Coverage rule, plans and issuers must make public machine-readable files containing certain pricing information. These machine-readable files include negotiated rates for in-network providers and allowed amounts and historical billed charges for out-of-network providers.
    • Please note:  
      • The information contained in this Machine-Readable File may be difficult to access without certain technology.
      • These files may be large and require a computer that can download at least up to 1TB (terabyte) of data. Most modern hard drives store half of this amount of data. Based on your computer's storage and hard drive, attempting to open or download large files may cause instabilities in Windows, cause performance issues resulting in downloads that could take hours, days or weeks depending on the file size and hard drive combination. For reference: 1TB = 243 high-definition streaming movies (average 2 hours per movie).
      • This mandate is a building block for future customer-facing mandates, including the Price Transparency Tool and the Advanced Explanation of Benefits.
      • The data in the files may not be useful for the average consumer. For example, facilities that are paid based on a percent of charge will not have a dollar amount representing the amount paid for a service.
      • The machine-readable files will be updated monthly to ensure accuracy of the data and reflect changes in pricing and regulatory requirements.

Dental & Vision

Life & Disability Benefits

Retirement - Financial Planning

The following are summaries of the Defined Contribution 403(b) and Supplemental plans:

Administrative Professional and Support Staff may retire at the end of the academic year in which they attain age fifty-five (55). 

Vacation, Personal & Sick Leave

Details regarding vacation, personal & sick leave can be found in the 2024-2027 Support Staff Association Contract (2,035KB)

Additional Employee Benefits

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) allow you to pay for certain out-of-pocket health care and dependent daycare expenses with pre-tax dollars. Your contributions are subtracted from your paycheck before federal, state, and FICA taxes are calculated on your pay, so you save monthly on taxes.

Contributions for FSAs do not reduce your pay for purposes of determining your life insurance, long-term disability or retirement benefits provided by the University.

There are two types of FSAs. You may participate in either or both; however, you cannot enroll in the Health Care FSA if you are enrolled in a Health Savings Account (HSA) Medical Plan.

  1. Health Care FSA - covers health care expenses for you and your eligible dependents
  2. Dependent Care FSA - covers eligible dependent day care expenses

For more information please review the Flexible Spending Account Overview (472KB)

Saginaw Valley State University offers a faculty and staff personal computer purchase program which assists eligible employees in purchasing computer systems for personal use and ownership. The program covers a basic computer system (e.g., computer CPU, monitor, printer, keyboard, scanner and applicable software). The program includes vendor educational discounts and University-assisted financing. 

Travel Assistance is offered for Administrative Professional, Support Staff, and Faculty. If traveling for business or pleasure and a medical emergency occurs, one phone call through UNUM provides worldwide emergency travel assistance to help locate hospitals, prescription replacement assistant, passport replacement, etc. To learn more – download the attachment below: 

UNUM Travel Assistance (370KB)

The Life Advisor EAP is a university-funded benefit that offers the support and resources you need to address any personal or work-related challenges and/or concerns that may affect your personal well-being and/or work performance. It is confidential and free to all faculty and staff as well as their eligible family members, including spouses/partners and dependent children.

Life Advisor EAP Benefits

  • 24/7 access to Life Advisor Consultants
  • Solution-focused, short-term, in-person or virtual counseling with licensed professional counselors for issues such as relationship and family concerns, grief/loss, stress, anxiety and depression, substance abuse and overwhelming emotions.
  • Coaching Services for support and motivation to achieve a work-life goal such as professional development, continuing education, job coaching, career transition, conflict resolution, healthy habits and self-improvement goals.
  • Eldercare or childcare referrals
  • Financial or legal referrals
  • Working Advantage Discount Program for access to discounts on hundreds of offers on hotels, events, attractions, products and more.

For more information, visit lifeadvisorwellness.com

To access services, including 24/7 crisis assistance, call 1-800-448-8326.

The following employee groups are eligible for tuition waiver benefits:

  • full-time administrative professionals, support staff & faculty
  • benefit eligible part-time employees 
  • SVSU retirees
  • Aramark & Barnes & Noble full-time employees working at SVSU

Qualified employees are eligible to receive 50-75% of their SVSU tuition waived.  In addition, spouses and eligible children of full-time employees, benefit eligible part-time employees and SVSU retirees’ may receive a 50% tuition waiver. 

The waiver/scholarship covers only tuition, course-related fees and listeners permits but does not extend to study abroad, books, late registration or other related fees.  For additional details and a link to the Tuition Waiver form please refer to the Operations Manual policy: Employee Tuition Waiver Authorization 2.10-1 .

Adjunct Faculty and Nursing Clinical Instructors are eligible for tuition waiver/reimbursement.  For additional details regarding specific amounts and a link to the Tuition Waiver forms please refer to the Operations Manual policy: Employee Tuition Waiver Authorization 2.10-1 .

 

Office of Human Resources

Wickes Hall 373
hr@svsu.edu
Phone: (989) 964-4108 / Fax: (989) 964-7066

Contact Us

Employment & Hiring

Wickes Hall 373
hremployment@svsu.edu 

 

 

Benefits

Wickes Hall 373
benefits@svsu.edu