[MyOEBB] OEBB -- Schedule your 2014 Open Enrollment Information Session(s) Now!

[MyOEBB system updates]

Dear Superintendents, Business Managers and Benefit Administrators:

OEBB is preparing for the upcoming annual open enrollment period (August 15 through September 15, 2014).  We anticipate there will once again be a lot of interest in hearing more about the OEBB plan offerings during the 2014 Open Enrollment period.

Many of you arrange for open enrollment meetings and/or benefit fairs so employees can learn about benefit and plan changes in addition to new plan offerings available at your entity. OEBB staff will be available to provide an overview of program and plan changes for the 2014-15 plan year. In our efforts to continue to educate our members about health care coverage, we will also spend some time previewing the Informed Enrollment Tool that will be available to all employees this year.  This tool allows members to compare the total estimated cost for each medical plan option the member has to choose from.  It includes both estimated out-of-pocket costs for premiums as well as for projected health care services.  We will also remind employees of the final step for qualifying for the 2014 Healthy Futures incentive.

We anticipate that many employees will have some medical plans available that use a special network and, in return, offer lower premiums than the traditional statewide plans. There will also be employees who will be able to consider a high deductible health plan (HDHP) through Kaiser Permanente for the first time. Carrier representatives will be available to present more details about their new options, if applicable, and can answer most, if not all, questions employees have as they consider their benefit plan choices for the next plan year.

OEBB will continue to offer both venue types - open enrollment meetings and benefit fairs.  However, we feel it is very important that your employees have the opportunity to hear about the plan changes and program additions that will go into effect on October 1, 2014, and the interaction during a benefit fair often doesn't allow for this.  This year we will again ask that all benefit fairs be scheduled to immediately follow an OEBB open enrollment presentation. We anticipate open enrollment information sessions will need to be about 90 minutes for your employees to fully understand the plan offerings and changes for the upcoming plan year, how to begin making their benefit plan selections, and how to complete the Healthy Futures four-step program.

As more individuals become interested in the tax savings Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) can offer, we can also arrange for special meetings to follow the open enrollment session. These meetings will help employees learn more about the HSA-compliant OEBB medical plan offerings (Moda Health Plan H and Kaiser Permanente Plan 3, where available) and U.S. Bank's HSA account offering.  For those entities that use the OEBB preferred vendor (Chard Snyder) for Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), we can arrange for special meetings to talk about the tax advantages of these types of pre-tax accounts as well. If you are interested in scheduling a time for a special HSA and/or FSA meeting, please note that on the meeting request form as well.  (A link to the form can be found at the end of this email.) These special meetings should also be scheduled to immediately follow an open enrollment presentation and could be held in conjunction with a benefit fair.  Please note that we need to have as much advance notice as possible for HSA- and FSA-specific meetings and will likely be unable to accommodate requests to include Chard Snyder and/or U.S. Bank representatives received on or after July 1.

We will once again schedule open enrollment meetings by region throughout the state and encourage coordination between districts whenever possible.  This is not required, but would be appreciated as we want to be able to make the best use of our staffing resources during this time period. The scheduling form will ask if you are willing to allow employees from other educational entities in the area to attend your meetings.

The dates we plan to be in the various areas are listed below.  The regions are divided a little differently than you have seen traditionally, so we identified the ESDs, community colleges and counties considered to be in each of the areas. If you'd like to schedule your meeting(s) for the week of the Labor Day holiday (the week of September 1) or even the final week of open enrollment 2014 (the week of September 8), we would greatly appreciate it.  The weeks of August 18 and August 25 have been the most popular in past years and we are often challenged to accommodate everyone's requests.

*       Central Oregon - Week of August 18: North Central ESD; Jefferson ESD; High Desert ESD; Harney ESD; Grant ESD; Malheur ESD; Central Oregon CC; Treasure Valley CC

*       Southwest Oregon - Week of August 25: South Coast ESD; Douglas ESD; Southern Oregon ESD; Rogue CC; Southwestern Oregon CC; Umpqua CC; Josephine County

*       Portland/Metro Area & Willamette Valley - Weeks of August 18 and August 25: Willamette ESD; LBL ESD; Lane ESD; Lane CC; Linn-Benton CC; Columbia Gorge ESD; Columbia Gorge CC; Clackamas ESD; Multnomah ESD; Portland CC: Clackamas CC; Mt. Hood CC

*       Northeast Oregon & Northwest Oregon - Weeks of August 18 and August 25: Inter-Mountain ESD; Union-Baker ESD; Region 18 ESD; Northwest Regional ESD; Clatsop CC; Oregon Coast CC; Blue Mountain CC; Tillamook CC

*       Southeast Oregon - Week of August 25: Lake; Southern Oregon ESD; Klamath CC; Klamath County

Our goal is to provide this important information to every employee and early retiree for the 2014-15 plan year. If you would like to schedule OEBB staff and/or carrier representatives for any type of meeting or event during the open enrollment period (August 15 through September 15), please complete the online form by close of business on June 30, 2014 (see link below).  Provide your email address in the space provided on the form and when you click the "Submit" button at the end of the form you will receive an automatic email confirmation containing the information you provided for your records.  We hope to be able to meet the specific dates and times of each request, but we may need to contact you to negotiate a different date or time to allow us to coordinate our journeys throughout the state.  For your convenience, here is a link to the request form:

2014 Open Enrollment Request Form<https://adobeformscentral.com/?f=w-ahehV57bpi8lIgr7L9Cw>

You can also find a link to the form on the "Entity Forms and Reports<http://www.oregon.gov/oha/OEBB/entity/Pages/eeforms.aspx>" page of our website. If you have any questions, please let me know.  My email address is denise.hall at oregon.gov<mailto:denise.hall at oregon.gov>, and my direct line is 503-378-5133.  You can also reach me at 1-888-4MyOEBB (1-888-469-6322).  Thank you for your continued support and cooperation as we prepare for a successful 2014 Open Enrollment.

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>

OEBB encourages all members to stay healthy and be happy!!!!     Pass it on.....
http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB/pages/welllinks.aspx




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