Eligibility and When Benefits Begin Direct Link

Employees working 20 hours or more per week are eligible for employee benefits.

• If you’re a new hire, your benefits coverage is effective on your date of hire.
• You’ll also be able to enroll or make changes each year during annual enrollment. Those elections will be effective on January 1.

Can I Cover My Family? Direct Link

If you’re enrolled for benefits, you can also cover your eligible dependents. An eligible dependent is:

• Your legal spouse or domestic partner*
• You or your legal spouse's or domestic partner’s child who is under age 26, including a natural child, stepchild, a legally adopted child, a child placed for adoption or a child for whom you or your legal spouse are the legal guardian.
• An unmarried child age 26 or over who is or becomes disabled and dependent upon you.
• A dependent also includes a child for whom health care coverage is required through a Qualified Medical Child Support Order or other court or administrative order.

Your child does not have to be a full-time student, a tax dependent or unmarried to be covered by Crown Castle's medical, dental and vision plans.

• Dependent children may continue to be covered until the day they turn 26.
• Your child must be your tax dependent in order to use your healthcare FSA or health savings account funds.

*To qualify as a domestic partner of a Crown Castle teammate, a certification must be completed, requiring both parties to declare they:

• Are at least 18 years of age
• Have been in a committed, exclusive relationship for at least 12 months
• Have resided together for at least 12 months
• Are not related by blood closer than allowed by law for marriage in your state of residence
• Are not legally married to, or the domestic partner of, another person
• Are both capable of giving legal consent
• Are financially interdependent

It is important that you take into consideration the key ways adding a domestic partner to your benefits could increase your health plan costs, including imputed income. IRS rules do not recognize the coverage of a domestic partner as a tax free event. So when you cover a partner – the IRS treats that compensation in the same way it does your normal salary. You must be taxed on the cash value of the extra insurance you now have to cover your partner. Factor this in when calculating the additional costs to you for adding your domestic partner to your benefits versus their encountering their own coverage options. Click here for FAQs on covering a domestic partner at Crown Castle.