Welcome to 2025 Annual Enrollment
At Santander, we strive to provide WHAT MATTERS MOST to support you and your family in feeling your best physically, emotionally, and financially. When reviewing our benefits offering, your feedback has been an important part of the decisions we make for the coming year so that we can continue to offer a comprehensive, affordable benefit package that sets us apart from our peers and offers you programs to meet your unique needs. This upcoming year, we’re continuing to offer you WHAT MATTERS MOST with access to quality healthcare and programs to support you and your loved ones at each stage of your lives, from parenthood, to retirement, and beyond.
For 2025 we focused on simplifying your benefits experience by not changing any benefits vendors, making minimal changes to plan designs, and limiting paycheck contribution increases despite rapidly increasing medical and prescription trend – all while adding new services and enhancing current programs to help manage healthcare costs and promote your health and family needs.
Click here to brush up on your benefits knowledge. Test your knowledge of benefits terminology, learn about what specialized medical programs Santander offers, and discover ways to save money on care by playing some of our new games. Check out the Annual Enrollment scavenger hunt in the “Spin to Learn and Win” game for the chance to win an Apple watch!
2025 Annual Enrollment will start on Thursday, October 17 and end at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, November 4. Enrollment will again take place in SanBenefits (www.sanbenefits.com, accessible from any personal device, and through single sign-on on the Santander network). For 2025, you can expect to see the new programs and changes below.
Medical and Prescription Drugs
We will continue to offer the choice of three medical plans - the Choice Plus PPO plan, HSA Choice Plus plan, and Surest plan. As we move into our third year offering the Surest plan, it will remain the cheapest from a paycheck perspective. We are seeing that employees enrolled in this plan are getting more preventive care, using the emergency room less, and are visiting higher quality care providers. Click here to read about how the Surest plan has worked well for Celeste Perez, Senior Associate, Platform and Delivery Management, and her family.
The changes to your medical and prescription drugs, including medical paycheck contributions, depends on the entity you work for. Click your entity’s link below for this information.
NEW - Carrum Health Surgery and Cancer Care Support
With Carrum Health medical plan members will have access to Centers of Excellence to receive high quality care from the top 10% of providers in the country for major medical needs including joint, spine, bariatric, cardiovascular, oncology and sports medicine surgeries. By establishing bundled rates with providers for each service they’re able to keep costs lower and Santander is able to pass the savings on to employees. There is no treatment cost for Choice Plus PPO and Surest plan members. HSA Choice Plus members must meet their deductible first then all costs are covered. This is a new program offering through our UnitedHealthcare (UHC) partnership.
NEW - Naviguard
While we encourage you to visit an in-network provider to receive high quality care at negotiated rates, we understand that circumstances may arise where out-of-network care is received. In these situations, you may receive a “balance bill” from the out-of-network provider. Balance billing occurs when the provider bills you for the difference between their charge and the amount UnitedHealthcare (UHC) approves to be paid to the provider. You may not be responsible for the balance bill amount, and this is where Naviguard will step in. All Santander medical plan members will have access to Naviguard through UHC at no cost to assist with potentially reducing the amount of the balance bill. A dedicated Advisor will review your balance bill, work with the provider directly to negotiate the balance requested and keep you updated at each step of the way.
Dental
- No change to the plan provider (Delta Dental) or plan designs.
- To begin harmonizing paycheck contributions across SanUS, Santander Consumer employees will see an increase in paycheck contributions of $2.50 to $9.84 per paycheck depending on the plan you elect and your coverage tier.
Vision
- VSP will continue to administer Santander’s vision plan benefit.
- The allowances for frames and contact lenses under both the Basic and Buy-up plans will increase by either $10 or $20, which means you’ll pay less out of pocket for these eyewear needs.
- Paycheck contributions will increase between $.42 and $2.53 per paycheck depending on the plan you elect and your coverage tier.
Supplemental Coverage Paycheck Contributions
- No provider changes or paycheck contribution changes for supplemental life insurance, critical illness insurance, supplemental long-term disability and legal plan coverage.
Enhanced Family Planning and Support
If you’re starting to think about growing your family, or are already in the process of doing so, it MATTERS to Santander that you feel supported throughout the path to parenthood and beyond. To continue to enhance our family planning and support benefits, we’re making the following changes effective January 1, 2025.
- In partnership with the DE&I Council, Parental Leave will increase to 8 weeks of fully paid job-protected time off (an increase of 2 weeks to the current program) to allow new parents more time to bond with and care for a newborn or adopted child. This change is effective for babies born, adopted and received through surrogacy October 1, 2024, and after, as long as the additional two weeks are taken after January 1. The Parental Leave program guidelines will also be updated to state that welcoming a child through surrogacy or fostering a child are eligible reasons for taking parental leave.
- We’re introducing new support for doula services for employees who wish to work with a doula for their birth journey and are enrolled in a Santander medical plan. You’ll work with Santander’s current partners Maven (PPO and HSA plans) or Progyny (Surest plan) to connect with a doula, and the new support includes a reimbursement of up to $2,500 towards doula expenses.
- Two changes to the Adoption Assistance Program will allow greater flexibility for employees seeking reimbursement for adoption expenses. The one-year of service eligibility waiting period to request reimbursement is being removed, and reimbursements can be requested within 12 months of the expense date.
Expanded Access to Real Appeal for All Employees
We’re expanding Real Appeal to be available to all employees in 2025 in order for everyone to have access to this no-cost online weight loss program where you’ll learn how to manage your weight, increase physical activity and eat more nutritiously. It’s currently only available if you’re enrolled in a Santander medical plan. Note: your BMI must be higher than 23 to participate in this program. Spouses and dependents age 18 and over with a BMI higher than 23 can also participate.
- Click here to read how Salina Hall, Sr. Consultant, Human Resources Business Partner, has found success using Real Appeal for her physical well-being journey.
This site describes certain Santander benefit plans and policies. Your eligibility for and entitlement to a benefit mentioned herein are governed by the terms of the official plan document or policy. Santander reserves the right to amend or terminate its plans and policies in full or in part at any time for any reason. In the event of a conflict between this site and the official plan document or policy, the official plan document or policy will control. Your employment is at will.