August 1998 Trust Talk

1998 Enrollment Round-up

The 1998 open enrollment has drawn to a successful close for the 46,000 Union-represented State employees served by the Trust. If you changed your dental, vision or supplemental life insurance coverage during open enrollment, it became effective July 1, 1998, and will cover you until June 30, 1999. The benefits brought to you by the Union-led Trust operate on a one-year plan year, meaning that the next open enrollment for dental, vision and life insurance will be Spring 1999. The Trust wants to make sure you and your family can review and change coverage at least once a year.

The staff of the Trust analyzes how plan participation shifts due to changes made during open enrollment. While the staff is still in the process of reviewing numbers, the initial results are in: each plan still has about the same number of participants as last year. One of the new benefit offerings from the Trust, Cole, received about 5 percent of members and families; this is within expectations for the roll-out of a new plan. The disability gap plan, the Trust's other new benefit effective July 1, 1998, has had a few potential claims identified. And that's also what we expected – the Trustees knew that many people would not receive denial from the State immediately, but that the plan was important to prevent the retroactive nature of the newly imposed lifetime limits from harming Union-represented State employees who have used disability in the past.

Working Solutions, now in its second year, reports receiving many inquiries about the materials offered in the Trust open enrollment kit. You may still contact Working Solutions to request a kit if you have not yet; complete the card in the open enrollment kit or call 800-358-8515. Also, please read this edition's Working Solutions article, Taking a Health Snapshot. The article contains tips on how you can help organize an older relative for whom you have caregiving responsibilities. Really, the information could be applied to all of us – keeping health information centralized and assessing doctors and health care providers is an important task people of all ages should do regularly.

While the next Trust enrollment is one year away and the State's is two, you should remember that you can always update coverage due to changes in family or work status. For instance, if you get married and adopt several children, you have 31 days from the wedding to add your new spouse and 31 days from the adoption to add your adopted children.

Plan participation statistics and information requests only tell us one part of the story – we need information from you for the other. That's why we conducted a survey this year – read on for a summary of the results. We also enjoyed hearing from you at the fairs we attended and appreciated your candid feedback on our communications, benefits and customer service.

Through the direction of the Trustees, the Trust will continue to review its efforts with the goal of upholding the mission: to provide high-quality benefits and services to Union-represented public employees, to enrich their overall quality of life and to enhance their appreciation of their respective Unions.