Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System (CLER) for Agencies

3/1

Carriers and payroll offices may begin transmitting enrollment data to CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System via electronic input files. Reminders are emailed to carriers and payroll offices regarding the current quarterly due date for the submission of enrollment data to be reconciled.

Note: The header record submitted by the carriers and payroll offices must include an as-of-date that corresponds with your pay period ending date.

The enrollment data that is extracted from the carrier and payroll office’s records must be those enrollments that are actually in effect that day. Effective March 1, all payroll offices must send a transmission every pay period. Data will be extracted according to the timeline defined by OPM Office of Personnel Management as follows:

• Payroll offices with monthly pay cycles or monthly premium collection cycles, must use the as-of-date equal to the first of the month following the end of month pay cycle. Any data, subsequent to March 1, may cause unmatched errors when compared to enrollee records submitted by carriers. Please do not report changes effective after March 1.
• Payroll offices with pay cycles other than monthly, must extract data effective as of the last pay period that falls between March 1 and March 15. The end of the pay period date must be reflected in the header as the as-of-date.

Note: Transmissions received with the as-of-dates between March 1 through March 15 will be used as the 1st quarter reconciliation file. A transmission must be sent for every pay period.

• Carriers must extract data effective as of March 1. There are no changes to the frequency of transmissions from the Carriers.

Carriers and payroll offices must include the correct submission date in the header record they transmit to CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System. The following are valid submission dates:

• For a payroll office, the submission date is the date they send their file to NFC.
• For a carrier, the submission date is the date they send their file to the OPM Office of Personnel Management Data Hub.

For more information about as-of-dates and the submission date, see the CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System Carrier Enrollment File Layout or CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System Payroll Office Enrollment File Layout, as applicable. Payroll Offices please assure you are referencing version 3.3. These documents are available through the CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System Operations and Reconciliation Unit.

3/10

Reminders are emailed to the carriers that have not submitted their quarterly enrollment data.

3/15

This is the current quarterly due date (last day) for carriers and payroll offices to transmit their quarterly enrollment data to CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System. Please transmit your enrollment file immediately.

3/15

Enrollment data transmitted from carriers must be received by noon Eastern Time (ET) at the OPM Office of Personnel Management Data Hub on this date to be accepted for inclusion into the reconciliation process. Payroll office transmissions must be received at NFC by 5:00 p.m. Central Time (CT) within 7 business days after the pay period end date. Any transmissions of enrollment data that are received after these times may not be included in the reconciliation process for this quarterly cycle. An email informing the submitter that the transmission is accepted or rejected is generated within 1 workday after receipt.

3/15

The OPM Office of Personnel Management data hub provides CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System with the last files transmitted by carriers at approximately 3:00 p.m. (ET).

3/15 - 3/19

The information required to produce discrepancy reports is processed and made available to Agencies and carriers through CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System, provided all Agencies and carriers submit their file by the deadline. The discrepancy report information will remain available until further notice. The Agencies have approximately 30 days to research discrepancies and respond with resolutions.

3/19

Lists of carriers and payroll offices that have not submitted their quarterly enrollment data are made available to OPM Office of Personnel Management through CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System.

4/22

Reminders are emailed to the Agencies that responses are due on discrepancies by 8:00 a.m. (CT) on May 1.

5/1

Responses from Agencies are due by 8:00 a.m. (CT).

• If the research shows that the payroll or personnel office records are incorrect, the payroll or personnel office will correct the error(s) in their payroll/personnel system and enter the reconciliation reason code in CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System.
• If the research shows that the carrier’s records are incorrect, the Agency will enter the results of their research in CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System for carrier correction. The Agency will submit supporting data through CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System or hard copy to the carrier.

5/1

On May 1, after 8:00 a.m. (CT), CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System will initiate the process of transferring the Corrective Action Request file to the OPM Office of Personnel Management Data Hub for the retrieval of the file by carriers. CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System will notify carriers via email when the data is available after the OPM Office of Personnel Management Data Hub has completed its processing.

5/1 - 5/31

Carriers enter Corrective Action Codes in CLER Federal Employees Health Benefits, Centralized Enrollment Clearinghouse System to indicate what actions were taken to resolve the discrepancies.

5/20

Reminders are emailed to the carriers that confirmation of the Corrective Actions must be completed by the beginning of the next month.