October 19, 2006
Manage your benefits during Open Enrollment
Open enrollment, the time for UW employees can make changes to their health care options, will be from Oct. 23 to Nov. 30 this year. Most employees already have received reminders by mail. Major benefit changes this year include boosted coverage levels for orthodontia and eyeglasses and new lower-premium “value” health plan options for Group Health and Kaiser Permanente, according to Kathleen Dwyer, director of the UW Benefits and WorkLife Office. But two health care plans also will be eliminated, and all continuing plans will see rate increases. Open enrollment is the annual time for UW employees to review their medical and dental coverage options based on the changing circumstances of their lives. Employees must use the open enrollment period to change medical or dental plans or add or remove a dependent from their coverage. Barring major life changes, it’s the only time of year when these adjustments can be made. All of these changes can be made online. It’s also the open enrollment period for the Medical Flexible Spending Account, which makes pre-taxed money available for medical expenses not covered by insurance, and the Dependent Care Assistance Program, which uses the same process to help employees pay for certain dependent care expenses. Administered by a different authority, these flex accounts also have an open enrollment period of Nov. 1-30. An important element of the Medical Flexible Spending Account and the Dependent Care Assistance Program, Dwyer noted, is that they are “use it or lose it”-style programs, meaning that any money left in the account at the end of the coverage year is forfeited (though employees have through March to submit claims for the previous year.) To help employees better understand the changes and new options, there will be three Benefits Fairs in different parts of the campus. There are two major changes this year, Dwyer said. “There are some plans going away, partly because we don’t have huge numbers of enrollment.” These are the Uniform Medical Plan’s Neighborhood option and Pacificare. Dwyer said if employees enrolled in these two plans do nothing during open enrollment, they will automatically be enrolled in the Uniform Medical Plan. But there are new “Value” plans, too, which Dwyer said are in response to staff input. “Some employees were concerned about how much comes out of their check, and wish to pay less premium and more at the time of service.” Answering this, then, are two new options — Group Health Value and Kaiser Permanente Value — which bear higher deductibles and co-pay amounts (paid at the time of service), but which offer the same range of coverage. Kaiser Permanente is available primarily to UW employees in Southwest Washington. Meanwhile, the standard Group Health and Community Health Plans continue, renamed “Classic” plans, and with somewhat increased premiums. All employees who are currently enrolled in the standard Group Health plan will be automatically enrolled in Group Health Classic if they do nothing during open enrollment. The classic-style plans reflect premium increases over this year. For instance, a single employee in the standard Group Health plan pays $51 a month now; Group Health Classic will charge $57 a month. For full family coverage, the standard Group Health plan, which will now be called Group Health Classic, cost an individual $151 a month this year. That rate will rise to $167 next year. Uniform Medical Plan costs this year are $14 a month for a single employee, $38 for employee and spouse and $49 for a full family. Those rates will rise next year to $24 for an individual, $57 for employee and spouse, and $75 for the full family. As for the coverage increases, Dwyer said that all medical plans will now cover annual eye exams and that the total amount for eyeglasses and “vision hardware” is now $150 for every two years. Also, she said the orthodontia benefit will double, from $750 to $1,500. “It may not be a huge increase, but we think it’s great that it’s going up,” Dwyer said. For more information about open enrollment for 2006, visit online at: http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/benefits/open.enrollment.html.
