|
State
health care plans undergo changes
By
Amy Geiszler-Jones
|
Human
resources offers help understanding benefits
Connie
Landreth and Janice Hobbs, WSU human resources staff who work
with benefits, are available to help employees understand
the various health, dental and vision insurance plans.
If
you would like a presentation for your department, please
contact Landreth at 978-6121 or connie.landreth@wichita.edu,
or Hobbs at 978-3079 or janice.hobbs@wichita.edu.
They
also can provide individual, confidential counseling and can
help employees who lack online access to enroll.
An
open enrollment meeting for retirees will be held Thursday,
Oct. 25, in the Sudermann Commons, Hughes Metropolitan Complex.
General information will be shared from 9:30-11:30 a.m. and
information on the new Kansas Choice Senior Plan C will be
discussed from 1-2:30 p.m.
|
Open
enrollment for health care plans for state employees continues until
Oct. 31, and next year’s plans bring some significant changes.
Among
the biggest changes are an increase in deductibles and the number
of times premiums are deducted from an employee’s paycheck
in a year.
Instead
of spreading out the premium payments across an employee’s
26 paychecks each year, the state will collect 24 payments. Payments
won’t be collected on the third paychecks in March and September.
So
while premiums remain for the most part unchanged, the deductions
will appear higher on your paychecks, says WSU benefits manager
Connie Landreth.
Some
employees, however, will notice their premiums have gone down slightly
next year.
"They’ve
changed the tiers of pay so many people may discover they’ll
pay less," Landreth says.
Deductibles
are going up quite dramatically for some insurance plans, and some
plans that hadn’t had deductibles in the past now will, according
to Landreth.
For
example, under the Kansas Choice plan, popular among WSU employees,
the deductibles for getting care from network providers will increase
from zero to $300 for individuals and from zero to $600 per family.
For care from non-network providers, the deductibles will triple
from the current $200 per person and $400 per family.
Deductibles
and co-payments are changing for some other plans, too. For
a quick reference on the changes, Landreth suggests employees check
pages 7-9 of their employee benefits book, mailed last month.
To
help with the increased out-of-pocket expenses, Landreth suggests
employees consider flexible spending accounts. Those accounts allow
employees to set aside money before it’s taxed to use for health
care expenses. For 2002, the maximum contribution to health care
flex accounts will rise from $2,860 to $3,168.
Employees
who want to change coverage or to start a flexible spending account
will need to do those things online at the open enrollment site,
http://da.state.ks.us/aksess.
|
