What’s the BIG news?

Human Resources presented items for consideration to the Joint Boards at their October 8th session. These included requests for further guidance in regard to salary increase projections, medical plan recommendations, and leave benefit issues arising out of the implementation of the new VRS Hybrid retirement plan. Briefly, we wanted to make you aware of those discussions and what we’ll be working on going forward.

What should I know today?

Salary recommendations: While salary increases are necessarily tied to revenue and our available resources, members of both Boards were passionate about how highly they value the work we all do in serving vital public needs. Staff will work diligently toward supporting a pay for performance-based increase (in the range of 1-3% for local government/school classified staff and 1-2% for those on the teacher’s scale) as we plan for the next fiscal year.

Medical plan: The continued quality and affordability of our medical plans are a high priority for the Boards annually. It is important to understand that our health plan reserve (which is the fund that is used to pay our plan expenses) is subject to ever-increasing cost pressures that are the result of:

• the inevitable rise in health care costs
• keeping monthly premiums artificially low during recent periods of no/little salary increases
• taxes that continue to be assessed on our plans under the Affordable Care Act
• unexpected additional costs due to other area employers’ disallowing spouse coverage on their plans (for those with access to employer plans)

As we must ensure the health of our plan reserves in order to continue to offer high quality healthcare at an affordable price, we will need to make some changes to our health plan. Some of the items currently under consideration are:

• plan design changes (increase of $5-10 on co-pays; increase deductibles from $250/$500 to $500/$1000—this would not apply to co-pay based services like doctor’s visits or pharmacy)
• the ineligibility of spouses currently on our plan who have access to affordable coverage through their own employers (this would not impact covered children)
• changes to monthly premiums

If all items up for consideration are approved by the Boards, employees could expect to see premium increases in the rage of $0 to $40/month, depending on plan/tier, with a Board contribution increase of 9.6%. Any changes made to the plan, if approved, would be effective 10/1/15.

Leave: The advent of the new VRS Hybrid Plan (which has mandated employer-paid short-term and long-term benefits) has created inequities between VRS Plan 1/Plan 2 employees and those in the new plan. The Boards acknowledge the challenges we are faced with in this regard and will be considering recommended options as to how best (and when) to implement any changes to current policy, as applicable, with the goal of providing adequate and equitable leave benefits to all employees, regardless of VRS plan membership.

What should I look for now?

Please continue to read information as it is sent to you. In the near future, the Boards will be tasked with making very important decisions on these and other issues that will impact staff. Without question, the members of both Boards recognize that the quality of excellence that exists in our county and our schools would not exist without YOUR dedication to public service, and they will be mindful of all of us as they consider these issues.

Anything else going on?

As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal from the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, legally married same-sex spouses of our employees are now eligible for coverage through our health plan. Children of same-sex spouses are also eligible for coverage. Same-sex couples who are currently legally married may request spousal coverage on your health plan now through November 7, 2014. As a reminder, any newly married employee currently enrolled on our health plan has a 31-day window from the date of the marriage to enroll a new spouse on your health/dental plans. For questions about eligibility and help with enrollment, contact Eden Brown in Human Resources via email at ebrown@albemarle.org or via phone at (434) 296-5827 #3569.

For more detailed information about your employee benefits, our web pages are always available when you are.