[MyOEBB] OEBB - Special Information Distribution During Open Enrollment

Tue Aug 2 11:35:57 PDT 2011

Yesterday Denise Hall sent the message below to Superintendents and
Business Managers. In response to some questions that have come up, here
are some additional clarifications:

1)    The additional carrier-specific material will only be mailed to
those employees who have that carrier's plan available to them for
2011-12. For example, if an employee does not have a Kaiser plan
available as one of their options, they will not receive additional
materials from Kaiser.

2)    Our mailing schedule for the Open Enrollment packets included some
buffer time to allow for unforeseen delays. Luckily, things went
smoothly and the packets have already begun to go out in batches. Some
employees have already begun receiving their packets and they should all
be postmarked no later than August 5th. 

As a reminder, electronic copies of the Open Enrollment materials are
available on the Entity Resources page of our website: 
http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB/entity/eeResources.shtml. Please feel
free to encourage employees to contact OEBB directly for assistance. Our
Member Services staff can be reached by phone at 1-888-469-6322, or via
e-mail at oebb.benefits at state.or.us.

Thank you!

Jackie Cowsill

Communications Coordinator

Oregon Educators Benefit Board

________________________________

Dear Superintendents, Business Managers and Benefits Administrators:

In preparing for the 2011-12 open enrollment period, we would like to
have more information available to employees as they make their benefit
decisions for the upcoming plan year.  In years past we have mailed
packets to employees' home addresses that included an overview of any
changes to the benefits program and plans and very high-level plan and
benefit information.  We will be sending these packets out again this
year and have told the carriers that they can send out supplemental
information individually if they would like to do so.  We anticipate
both the OEBB packet and any information sent by the individual carriers
should begin showing up at employees' home addresses sometime during the
week of August 8, 2011.

One of the main reasons we asked carriers to consider sending additional
carrier-specific material directly to employees is to try to ensure
every employee understands the options available well enough to select
the plans and/or coverages that best meet the individual's and/or
family's needs.  This is especially important for those employees who
have medical plans available to them that represent an organized system
of care (i.e., the Kaiser and Providence medical plan options and ODS
Medical Plan 4).  While the Kaiser plans and system of care have been a
part of many entities' benefit offerings for years, the Providence
Medical Home plans (2 and 2A) and ODS' Community Care Plan (ODS Medical
Plan 4) will be a new concept in health care for many educational
employees beginning October 1, 2011.  Additionally, the number of
employees with access to the high deductible health plan (ODS Medical
Plan 9) and a health savings account (HSA through U.S. Bank) will more
than double effective October 1.  With all change, education and the
resulting knowledge is key to success.

The additional information will be limited to no more than a two-sided
8x11 page of information that will focus on the main points a person
needs to know to be able to make a good decision of whether the coverage
or plan will meet their needs.  It may also provide some additional
information about the value-added resources available through the
specific carrier.  If the optional benefit carriers (Unum and The
Standard) choose to send out the additional material, it may also
include the rates for plan offering(s).  We have also extended the
opportunity to Reliant Behavioral Health (RBH) so employees with an
employee assistance program (EAP) benefit available to them are reminded
of this very valuable, but often forgotten, benefit provided by you,
their employer. 

We understand there will be some employees that would prefer not to
receive any more unsolicited mail.  However, we believe that most
recipients will be happy to have more-specific and detailed information
about the plans and carriers as they consider their coverage options for
the 2011-12 plan year.  We hope these mailings do not result in many, if
any, calls to entity staff.  Please feel free to encourage any employee
that does contact you to call the OEBB Member Services team at
888-469-6322 or by email at OEBB.benefits at state.or.us.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.   Thank you.

Sincerely,

Denise L. Hall

Deputy Administrator

Oregon Educators Benefit Board

http://egov.oregon.gov/DAS/OEBB

(503) 378-5133

(503) 378-5832 FAX

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************************************ 

jc

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