|
Open benefits
period begins, new premiums and opportunities announced
BY LINDA MCHUGH
In a year where the trend toward significant increases in health
care and prescription drug costs has dominated health news, AU’s
Human Resources department has successfully negotiated premium increases
that are below the national average.
Next year, CareFirst premiums will increase by 6.9 percent and Kaiser
Permanente premiums will increase by 12.45 percent. Nationally,
however, the average premium is projected to increase from 12 to
15 percent. AU’s success in containing rate increases came
in large part because “our utilization is down from last year
and AU faculty and staff have been switching to generic prescriptions,”
said benefits manager Theresa McDermott.
There are no changes to the basic plan design for any provider,
but those insured by CareFirst will have a new prescription drug
provider, with accompanying procedural changes. Other changes include
an increase in flexible medical spending account set-asides from
$5,000 to $6,000 and changes to the list of reimbursable drugs.
In a memo to the campus community, Beth Muha, executive director
of Human Resources wrote that “to help contain costs the university
benefits project team recommended two changes that have been approved.”
First, the CareFirst prescription program provided through Advance
PCS will be replaced by the Southern Purchase Pharmacy Collective
prescription program provided through Express Scripts. This change
reduced AU’s CareFirst renewal from 8.4 percent to the final
6.9 percent and is effective as of April 1, 2004. There is no change
to the benefit design, and CareFirst insured employees will continue
to pay $10 for generic drugs, $25 for preferred drugs, and $35 for
non- preferred drugs.
The benefits committee also recommended increasing pre-tax medical
flexible spending account limits from $5,000 to $6,000 annually,
effective Jan. 1, 2004.
Additionally, the IRS has approved some over-the-counter drugs for
reimbursement under medical spending accounts; at the same time,
some health plans have stopped covering those drugs. Individuals
who regularly take over-the-counter medicines may want to view the
list of drugs approved for reimbursement through medical spending
accounts.
AU’s open enrollment period began last week and runs through
Dec. 1. Changes in elections will take effect on Jan. 1, 2004. During
open enrollment, faculty and staff can make changes to their health
and dental plans, switch providers, pick up or drop a benefit, and
set up flexible spending plans for legal and dependent care.
A new election for medical and dependent care spending account is
required each year and there is a use-it or lose-it provision for
unused money and claims. All 2003 claims must be filed by March
31, 2004
Premium rate increases will appear in the Jan. 2 paycheck for employees
paid biweekly and the Jan. 30 paycheck for employees paid monthly.
Complete open enrollment renewal information, including forms, benefit
plan changes and rates, and a list of reimbursable over-the-counter
drugs are available on-line at the my.american .edu portal, under
finances.
WEB
RESOURCE
There
are are links to AU’s healthcare and flexible spending account
vendors from the my.american.edu portal, but for a quick reference
we list them below:
www.kaiserpermanente.org/
www.carefirst.com/main/html/HomePage.html
www.dentaquest.com/
www.flexamerica.com/flex/home.asp
www.araggroup.com/
top
|
