[MyOEBB] FW: [OEBBBUSMAN] IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM OEBB -- Scheduling InsuranceCommittee Meetings for 2012-13 Plan Year

Wed Apr 4 14:49:36 PDT 2012

From: oebbbusman-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
[mailto:oebbbusman-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of
Business Managers-OEBB
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 10:05 AM
To: OEBBBUSMAN at listsmart.osl.state.or.us;
OEBBSUPERINFO at listsmart.osl.state.or.us;
myoebb at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Subject: [OEBBBUSMAN] IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM OEBB -- Scheduling
InsuranceCommittee Meetings for 2012-13 Plan Year
Importance: High

We sent the notice below to ESD representatives a little over a week
ago.  You may have already been contacted by your ESD about any interest
in setting up insurance committee meetings for the 2012-13 plan
selection process.

I would like to also take this opportunity to remind you that the Board
voted to eliminate the limitations on how many medical, dental and
vision plans can be offered by an employee group.  This will change the
plan selection process for the 2012-13 plan year.  Linda Tullis will be
providing more information about the process and timelines in the next
few weeks, but one of the major changes is that MyOEBB will be populated
with all of the medical, dental and vision plans available in your
entity's service area for all of your employee groups.  Should the
decision be made that a certain plan or plans will not be part of the
menu for employees during the 2012 open enrollment period, the entity
benefit representative will need to go into MyOEBB to "deselect" that
plan or plans.  As stated below in my email to ESDs, as well as my March
5 email, it is our hope that entities will allow individual employees to
consider all of the options available to them under the OEBB benefits
program so each can select the coverages that best meet their needs
and/or the needs of their family.

If you have already worked with your ESD representative to schedule a
meeting time or times, you can disregard the rest of this email. If you
have been contacted, but haven't yet responded with your date(s) and
time(s), we urge you to do so as soon as possible to assist both your
ESD and OEBB in finalizing and confirming locations, dates and times.
If you haven't heard from your ESD, you can either contact them, or
contact Rose Mann at rose.mann at state.or.us to verify whether a meeting
or meetings have been scheduled in your area.

Organizing these meetings in a central location helps us meet the demand
in the short period of time between releasing plan designs and rates and
the end of the school year.  We understand that limiting meetings to
ESDs only can be a major inconvenience for some districts and are
willing to consider coordinated efforts between districts and community
colleges and/or even district-specific meetings when there are no other
options.  Our intent is to be as available as possible within the
staffing and time constraints we face.

We look forward to coming out and meeting with the employee groups
charged with reviewing options and possibly making plan selections for
their coworkers and peers.  Please let us know if you have any questions
or concerns.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Denise L. Hall

Denise L. Hall, Deputy Administrator

Oregon Educators Benefit Board

http://egov.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB <http://egov.oregon.gov/DAS/OEBB> 

(503) 378-5133

(503) 378-5832 FAX

OEBB encourages all members to stay healthy and be happy!!!!     Pass it
on.....  http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB/WellLinks.shtml
<http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB/WellLinks.shtml>     

*****CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*****

This e-mail may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or
otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not
the addressee or it appears from the context or otherwise that you have
received this e-mail in error, please advise me immediately by reply
e-mail, keep the contents confidential, and immediately delete the
message and any attachments from your system. 

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

From: HALL Denise * OEBB 
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 5:07 PM
To: HALL Denise * OEBB
Subject: OEBB -- Scheduling Insurance Committee Meetings for 2012-13
Plan Year
Importance: High

In anticipation of the upcoming 2012-13 plan-year, OEBB and its
insurance carriers are preparing for meetings with educational entity
insurance committees and groups of employees responsible for reviewing
plans and options to determine which benefit plans will be offered to
employees.  As announced in my March 5 email to all entities, the OEBB
board voted to remove limitations of up to four medical plans, up to
three dental plans and one vision plan for the 2012-13 plan year.  It is
our hope that many employee groups will decide to open up all plan
options to all employees allowing individual employees to consider a
plan during the open enrollment period that might best meet their unique
needs, but may not be a plan that enough employees would be interested
in for a committee or employee group to include it if having to limit
the number of options. Whichever way entities and/or employee groups are
considering, and/or decide to go, OEBB and the carriers are happy to
come and provide an overview of the plans and to be available for
questions so these important decisions can be made.

For the past two years, we've scheduled most insurance committee
meetings through the education service districts (ESDs) located
throughout Oregon.  This has helped us to be available for many more
insurance committee meetings than would otherwise be possible. We really
appreciate the time and effort you have put into this the past couple of
years. Thank you! 

We hope you are willing to contact the benefit representative or
business manager for the districts in your service area to coordinate a
date and/or time for in-person insurance committee meetings again this
year. Last year we limited the meetings to no more than two per ESD.
This year we are going to lift the limit, but encourage you to try to
arrange schedules to accommodate the districts in your area within a
two-day period with no more than three meetings in any one day.
Hopefully the date and/or times can be a bit flexible (with as much
prior notice as possible) as we need to coordinate our limited resources
(with very tight timeframes) with other ESDs and districts identified in
your "region."

We will be notifying individual districts later this week to anticipate
hearing from you regarding scheduling these meetings. We will also
encourage districts that are unable to arrange a time that works with
their ESD to coordinate with other districts, or even community
colleges, in their area to schedule joint meeting times. Our goal is for
OEBB/carrier teams to be able to complete all of the meetings needed in
a specific area in a three-to four-day period within the block of time
designated for the various areas of the state (see below).

The regions are divided a little differently than you see traditionally,
so we identified the ESDs and community colleges considered to be in
each of the areas. 

*         Southwest Oregon- Week of May 7: South Coast; Douglas;
Southern Oregon; Rogue CC; Southwestern Oregon CC; Umpqua CC; Klamath CC

*         Central Oregon - Week of May 14: North Central; Jefferson;
High Desert; Central Oregon CC

*         Portland/Metro Area & Willamette Valley - Weeks of May 14 &
May 28: Willamette; LBL; Lane; Lane CC; Linn-Benton CC;; Columbia Gorge
ESD; Columbia Gorge CC; Clackamas ESD; Multnomah; Portland CC: Clackamas
CC; Mt. Hood CC

*         Northeast Oregon & Northwest Oregon - Week of May 21:
Inter-Mountain; Union-Baker; Region 18; Blue Mountain CC; Grant;
Northwest Regional; Clatsop CC; Oregon Coast CC; Tillamook CC 

*         Southeast Oregon - Week of May 21: Harney; Lake; Malheur;
Treasure Valley CC 

The presentations will again last approximately two hours. OEBB staff
will provide an overview of all program and plan changes, summarize any
pertinent rules or rule changes and answer program and eligibility
questions. We will also introduce the new Flexible Spending Account
(FSA) preferred partner that will be available for entities to use
effective October 1, 2012, and will be able to provide additional
information on this new option. Carrier representatives will provide
information on the plans available in the area (including more specific
details on any plan changes), identify new resources and tools available
to members online and answer specific benefit-related questions. Benefit
and benefit plan selections are very important decisions and OEBB's goal
is to provide this important information to every employee who
participates in the plan selection process for the 2012-13 plan-years. 

Once you have identified meeting dates and times for the entities in
your area and you are ready to schedule an insurance committee meeting
or meetings, please complete the attached form and return it to Rose
Mann at rose.mann at state.or.us <mailto:rose.mann at state.or.us>  no later
than close of business on April 13, 2012. We will do everything we can
to accommodate the specific dates and times that work best for you and
your entities; however, we may need to contact you to resolve any
scheduling conflicts that may arise as the requests come in. We
anticipate having the final meeting schedule set by April 20, 2012 and
will send out a meeting confirmation at that time. 

If you have any questions, please contact Linda Tullis at 
Linda.tullis at state.or.us <mailto:Linda.tullis at state.or.us>  or by
calling 1-888-4MyOEBB (1-888-469-6322). Thank you for your continued
support and cooperation as we prepare for a successful 2012-2013 Plan
Year. 

Please note: Insurance Committee webinars may be scheduled if there is
sufficient interest (see the attached 2012 Insurance Committee form). 

Sincerely,

Denise L. Hall

Denise L. Hall, Deputy Administrator

Oregon Educators Benefit Board

http://egov.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB <http://egov.oregon.gov/DAS/OEBB> 

(503) 378-5133

(503) 378-5832 FAX

OEBB encourages all members to stay healthy and be happy!!!!     Pass it
on.....  http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB/WellLinks.shtml
<http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB/WellLinks.shtml>     

*****CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*****

This e-mail may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or
otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not
the addressee or it appears from the context or otherwise that you have
received this e-mail in error, please advise me immediately by reply
e-mail, keep the contents confidential, and immediately delete the
message and any attachments from your system. 

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

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