What’s the BIG news?

We recently went out to bid for our medical, dental, and pharmacy vendors and will wrap up that process in the next few weeks. Because we want to have all of the details worked out before we begin communications leading up to our August Open Enrollment period, we’re giving you a quick heads-up now that Open Enrollment will be held August 1st through August 19th.

What’s Open Enrollment??? Open Enrollment is your ONE time of year to make any change you wish to your current medical or dental elections: you can add/drop/change a plan or add/drop dependents. It’s also the one time of year when you can enroll in a medical or dependent care flexible spending account (FSA). FSA contracts do not roll from one year to the next; you must re-enroll if you wish to participate in an FSA next year, even if you have a rollover balance at the end of the current medical FSA plan year.*

As always, we’ll send you updates via benefitsFOCUS newsletters and we’ll post information about rates, plans, info sessions, on-site benefits assistance sites and much, much more on our Open Enrollment website. This site will go live towards the end July. You can also expect to receive a reminder mailing at your home in late July. If you’re not yet subscribed to Albemarle County Public Schools’ Electronic School Notification System (ESNS), or if you need to update your contact info, take this opportunity to provide up to two phone numbers and/or your email address. Subscribing to the ESNS enables us to notify you in the event of an emergency and to contact you regarding school schedule changes and other important notifications (like Open Enrollment!). Get started by visiting our web-based update tool (ACPS login required). Regardless of how you access information about your benefits options, please be sure to review the information because……

What else should I know?

In addition to a traditional health insurance plan like we have now, we’ll be offering a NEW type of health insurance plan for the next plan year (which begins on October 1st).  It’s called a Consumer Driven Health Plan, and it comes with a Health Savings Account. A Consumer Driven Health Plan gives you as a consumer more choice as to how YOU spend YOUR health care dollars. This plan features lower monthly premiums than a traditional health insurance plan, but higher out of pocket costs when you seek services. The Health Savings Account that will be offered with this Consumer Driven Health Plan is an account that can be used to pay those higher out of pocket costs. This account will feature an employer contribution, but you can also contribute to this plan – to pay eligible out of pocket costs, or to save for future retiree medical expenses. It’s got some very attractive tax advantages, and we’ll be telling you A LOT more about these new plans in the coming weeks. Be sure to stay informed by reading upcoming issues of the benefitsFOCUS and visiting our Open Enrollment website as we walk you through the specifics of the upcoming plans (including premium rates), and show you how you can assess your options.

*If you currently have a medical FSA account, you’ll receive a special communication regarding rollovers and contract renewals prior to the Open Enrollment period.

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