Take Action: What You Need to Do to Prepare for and Enroll in Benefits
What’s New and Changing for 2026
Expanding Surgical Center of Excellence Network with Lantern
Our Centers of Excellence (COE) program offers best-in-class surgical services while lowering costs. With Lantern, you’ll have access to a personal Care Advocate who can help match you with a surgeon within our Center of Excellence (COE) network when you need a planned, non-emergency procedure. There is no surgical procedure cost for those enrolled in Option 1 or Option 2. For Option 3 members, there will be no cost after your deductible has been met.
Keep in mind: The Maternity COE will remain as it is today with no changes in Greater Cincinnati through TriHealth.
Benefits Tip!
If you need to travel to receive care through the COE program, you may qualify for financial support.
Other 2026 enhancements and required updates:
Health benefits
- Employee contributions for medical coverage will increase modestly for 2026. In addition, the annual deductible and out-of-pocket maximum for the medical plans will increase (for the first time since 2020).
- The co-pay for Specialty Drugs will increase from $4 per day to $5 per day.
- The GE Aerospace Vision Plan annual allowance will increase to $250 per covered individual, so you have more to cover the cost of frames, lenses, or contacts.
- You have more coverage for chiropractic care; coverage is increasing from 24 to 32 visits per year.
Savings accounts
- The annual IRS contribution limits for pre-tax savings accounts (HSAs and FSAs) are increasing, which means you can save more pre-tax to pay for eligible expenses.
Protection and disability benefits
- Be sure to verify and update your life and long-term disability insurance including your beneficiary information or designations.
- You may enroll in Group Legal, Pet Insurance, and Identity Theft Protection benefits, if eligible. You must enroll in Group Legal during Annual Enrollment; however, you can enroll in Pet and Identity Theft insurance anytime during the year.
Family care and sick / personal pay (Applies to non-union and union-represented employees with agreements ratified in 2025.)
- Paid Parental Leave will begin immediately when welcoming a new child (through birth or adoption that occurs on January 1, 2026, or later), and no longer requires having at least one year of continuous service.
- A pregnancy loss will qualify for five days of Bereavement Leave.
- We’re also expanding Bereavement Leave from three days of paid time off to four days for qualified circumstances.
- There will no longer be a waiting period to receive sick or personal pay.
Expanding Surgical Center of Excellence Network with Lantern
Our Centers of Excellence (COE) program offers best-in-class surgical services while lowering costs. With Lantern, you’ll have access to a personal Care Advocate who can help match you with a surgeon within our Center of Excellence (COE) network when you need a planned, non-emergency procedure. There is no surgical procedure cost for those enrolled in Option 1 or Option 2. For Option 3 members, there will be no cost after your deductible has been met.
Keep in mind: The Maternity COE will remain as it is today with no changes in Greater Cincinnati through TriHealth.
Benefits Tip!
If you need to travel to receive care through the COE program, you may qualify for financial support.
Other 2026 enhancements and required updates:
Health benefits
- Employee contributions for medical coverage will increase modestly for 2026. In addition, the annual deductible and out-of-pocket maximum for the medical plans will increase (for the first time since 2020).
- The co-pay for Specialty Drugs will increase from $4 per day to $5 per day.
- The GE Aerospace Vision Plan annual allowance will increase to $250 per covered individual, so you have more to cover the cost of frames, lenses, or contacts.
- You have more coverage for chiropractic care; coverage is increasing from 24 to 32 visits per year.
Savings accounts
- The annual IRS contribution limits for pre-tax savings accounts (HSAs and FSAs) are increasing, which means you can save more pre-tax to pay for eligible expenses.
Protection and disability benefits
- Be sure to verify and update your life and long-term disability insurance including your beneficiary information or designations.
- You may enroll in Group Legal, Pet Insurance, and Identity Theft Protection benefits, if eligible. You must enroll in Group Legal during Annual Enrollment; however, you can enroll in Pet and Identity Theft insurance anytime during the year.
Family care and sick / personal pay (Applies to non-union and union-represented employees with agreements ratified in 2025.)
- Paid Parental Leave will begin immediately when welcoming a new child (through birth or adoption that occurs on January 1, 2026, or later), and no longer requires having at least one year of continuous service.
- A pregnancy loss will qualify for five days of Bereavement Leave.
- We’re also expanding Bereavement Leave from three days of paid time off to four days for qualified circumstances.
- There will no longer be a waiting period to receive sick or personal pay.
*Medical payroll contributions are tiered based on your annual pay. If your pay increases and moves you into a higher contribution tier, your medical contributions, deductible, and out-of-pocket maximum under Health Benefits may also increase. Additionally, updated state surcharges for 2026 may apply, and part-time employees may experience different contribution rates.
How to Enroll
During the enrollment window (Monday, October 20 – Friday, October 31), go to HR Central.
Click Enroll Now to start making your elections. The portal will guide you through each step, from selecting coverage and contribution amounts for your FSA and/or HSA to confirming your dependents and updating personal information.
Once you’ve completed your enrollment, keep an eye out for a confirmation statement detailing your 2026 benefit elections.
Pro Tip: After you’ve completed your enrollment, you can still make changes to your elections until the end of the Annual Enrollment period.
If you have questions or need help with your enrollment, call HR Services at 1-844-477-2200 from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
First time calling?
If it’s your first time calling, you will need to set up a personal information number or PIN, which is used to verify your identity every time you call the Contact Center.
- Instead of setting up your PIN over the phone (which may take up to 5-10 minutes), log in to HR Central to make updates instantly.
- Select your profile in the right corner, and under My Profile, select Log On Information.
- Then under Phone PIN, click Change.
- From here, enter a new phone PIN and select Change PIN to save.
Enrollment Checklist
Annual Enrollment is your opportunity to:
- Enroll in, waive, or change your medical, vision, or dental plan elections for you and your eligible dependents.
- Enroll in a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and/or Health Savings Account (HSA) and select your contribution amount for 2026.
- Keep in mind: You must actively elect an FSA and/or HSA and set your contributions each year. Prior year elections do not carry over.
- New this year: Update your life and long-term disability (LTD) insurance.
- Pro Tip: When reviewing your elections, be sure to verify and update your life insurance including your beneficiary information or designations. You can also update your beneficiary information or designations at any time at HR Central > Health & Insurance > Manage Beneficiaries.
- Retirement Plan beneficiaries can be viewed or updated by logging on to Fidelity NetBenefits.
- Enroll in Group Legal, Pet Insurance, and Identity Theft Protection benefits, if eligible. You must enroll in Group Legal during Annual Enrollment; however, you can enroll in Pet and Identity Theft insurance anytime during the year.
- Confirm which eligible family members you want to cover and update the associated Working Spouse Status.
- Change your Smoker or Smokeless Tobacco User Status* or verify your plans to participate in a cessation program.
- Elect to receive a payout or roll over your unused sick and personal pay hours earned in 2025. If you do not make an election, you will automatically receive payment in 2026 for your unused 2025 hours.
If you do not make any changes during Annual Enrollment, your current medical, dental, vision, and legal plan options will remain the same. However, your FSA and/or HSA election and contribution amounts will not carry over from 2025 to 2026. You must enroll in an FSA and/or HSA every year.
If you experience a qualifying life event during the year, such as marriage, divorce, birth/adoption of a child, or loss of other coverage, you have 63 days after the date of the qualifying event to make updates or changes to your benefits.
To make a change based on a qualifying life event, visit HR Central > Health & Insurance > Change Your Coverage to complete this process if outside the Annual Enrollment window.
Benefits Tip!
Learn more about the available enrollment support if you need help enrolling, have questions, or want to find more information.
* If you are a smoker or smokeless tobacco user, you can avoid the surcharge for the year by participating in a smoker or smokeless tobacco cessation program. Contact Health Coach from GE Aerospace at 1-866-272-6007 and they will help connect you to one of the many resources available at no cost to help you quit. Additionally, if your personal physician determines that a smoking or smokeless tobacco cessation program or other resource to help you quit is not medically appropriate, we can accommodate your personal Physician’s recommendation with regard to medical appropriateness. If your physician’s recommendation requires medical items or services to be furnished, those items or services will be subject to any cost-sharing requirements that would otherwise apply under the GE Aerospace medical plan.
This guide provides highlights of the changes to health and welfare plans. If there are any conflicts between this document and the Plan documents, the Plan documents prevail. GE Aerospace (General Electric Company or the Company) sponsors certain employee benefit plans or programs. General Electric Company, operating as GE Aerospace, reserves the right to terminate, amend, suspend, replace or modify its benefit plans and programs at any time and for any reason, in its sole discretion. GE Aerospace will exercise this right consistent with the terms of any applicable collective bargaining agreement and any obligations imposed by law. No individual has a vested right to any benefit under a GE Aerospace welfare benefit plan or program.
