PLAN CHANGES
Unlike last year, we have several significant changes occurring to your
plans; we're announcing them now so that you can better plan for open
enrollment. However, the plan changes will not take effect until July
1, 2000. These changes were brought about through the Trustees,
who regularly review all Trust plans as well as our available finances;
the mission statement always plays a role in
these considerations.
The changes occurring July 1, 2000, will have impact in almost each type of plan we offer. The DMO and Disability Gap plans will be dropped, in
part, because the money spent for these plans has not impacted a significant number of members. Working Solutions Service and Supplemental Life are
being enhanced to better serve members and their families.
Finally, we note the recently expanded discount programs offered by the vision plans that incorporate corrective laser surgery, in which many
of you have expressed interest.
DMO
The last day of the DMO dental plan will be June 30, 2000. The DMO is being eliminated for several reasons. One main reason is the dissatisfaction
many DMO participants experienced with the plan's problems (e.g., several providers exiting the DMO network after Aetna took over, the many network
practices closed to new patients or the poor reputation of network dentists). Furthermore, during our routine dental plan evaluations, Prudential failed
our performance audits two years in a row. Recent reviews also showed that the Prudential DMO, like other DMO-type plans nationwide, is not
doing well in the market, and has a very high cost (which is projected to increase more in the future). Finally, less than seven percent of members
took advantage of the DMO option, consistently over the four years it was offered. With these negative factors, the DMO no longer met the Trust's
mission, and so, the Trust was compelled to discontinue the DMO option.!
Current DMO participants will be transferred to Preferred Choice automatically July 1, 2000, unless they select Quality Dental during open enrollment.
Working Solutions Service
Seeing several unmet needs, the Trustees voted to expand the offerings of Working Solutions Service. The enhancements will take effect July 1,
2000, and include an array of family-related services to encompass more child/family needs. Since child/family service is a range of issues, here's
a flavor of all stages of child development that Working Solutions is prepared to help with:
- Prenatal/newborn solutions
- Parenting
- Child care
- Teen issues and
- Education (preschool through college).
We'll send a packet in June or July, further detailing the new options that will be available to you through Working Solutions as of July 1.
Go see Working Solutions website for more information on all the options available
to you currently.
Working Solutions will still be provided at no cost to you, and will still cover you and your family automatically at hire. Working Solutions
will continue to provide you with information and referrals on adult/elder dependents' or special-needs dependents' needs.
Disability Gap
This plan was designed to prevent many members from being penalized due to actions that occurred in the 1997 collective bargaining process; however,
very few people were affected by the change. To better use the benefits dollars to positively impact the greatest number of members, the plan
will be discontinued July 1, 2000. Members receiving coverage as of June 30, 2000, will maintain benefits for the length of their approved disability
only.
Spouse's supplemental life insurance
State laws limiting the amount of group term life insurance have changed, and we are now able to increase the amount of insurance coverage available
for your spouse. As in the past, supplemental life insurance provides $10,000 coverage for your spouse without evidence of insurability. As
of 7/1/00: if your spouse provides evidence of insurability, he or she may elect either $20,000 or $30,000 in supplemental life insurance coverage.
If Prudential does not accept the evidence of insurability provided, you will be contacted, but your spouse will be covered at the $10,000 level
automatically. Please read your open enrollment guide for more details.
Laser vision surgery
This discount program is already in place, and you can now take advantage of the discount program associated with the vision plan in which you're
currently enrolled. We've talked about the discount programs here on the web previously; however, given the huge amount of interest, it bears repeating:
Go see Laser Surgery Discount Updates , More Information on Laser Surgery and Laser surgery,
sorting out the real deals.
As always, you can contact the Trust for more information about any of the plans we offer - we can help via email or
over the phone.
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