What’s the BIG news?

We are pleased to announce that employees will be refunded two months of their medical premiums as a result of the strong performance of our health insurance program. This one-time refund will appear in your November pay and will be based on the normal premium paid in October for the coverage selected at that time.

Why am I getting a rebate?

Our health insurance program is self-funded. This means that we don’t pay Anthem of Virginia to insure us. Rather, we insure each other—and Anthem acts as our plan administrator. Here is how our self-funded plan works:

As you see above, we use employee premiums and employer contributions to pay all of our medical claims. Your premiums also help us maintain a reserve fund that is used when premium contributions are not sufficient to cover our claims. With the changes we have made to the medical plan over the last few years (including our switch to Anthem) and lower medical claims last year than projected, our reserve fund is now larger than is necessary. As a result, we are returning some of this to you.

What will this look like?

This one-time refund will appear on your pay stub this week, and is based upon the medical plan premium you paid in October. Since medical premiums are deducted on a pre-tax basis, the actual amount of the refund you receive will be adjusted to account for the FICA taxes that will apply. This will not affect your current medical premium for November—that still will be deducted from your pay. Review a sample refund »

A special note for Albemarle Choice (our High Deductible Plan) participants: We will make a special, one-time contribution of $200 into your Health Savings Account (HSA) at the end of January. This payment is intended to equalize the refund for covered employees, regardless of the plan they have selected. Giving this payment to you in January will eliminate tax issues for employees with Health Savings Accounts who have already met their IRS contribution limit for this calendar year.

What should I do?

Please carefully review your November earnings statements to verify receipt of your premium refund. Access your earning statements on Greenshades »

If you need assistance logging in to Greenshades, please email FSBPHelp@albemarle.org. If you have questions about your November earnings statement (including your deduction information), please email payroll@albemarle.org for assistance.

For more information about your employee benefits, our web pages are always available when you are. If you have questions, please contact Human Resources at 296-5827 or benefits@albemarle.org.