Benefits Bulletin July 2023

Welcome to the Benefits Bulletin!

Our goal with this monthly newsletter is to communicate benefit changes and keep you up-to-date and informed on approaching deadlines.

Optional Life Insurance Rate Adjustments

Each year as of January 1, optional life insurance rates are updated based on any salary increases/decreases or changes in your age bracket from the prior calendar year. We discovered that the 5% merit salary increases from July 2022 were not updated with Minnesota Life. Therefore, effective with your July 14 paycheck, you will see an adjustment to your optional life insurance premium based on last year’s merit increase. Since this was an error on their part, Minnesota Life will not be retroactively collecting the correct premiums from January – June. The adjustment to premiums will only be reflected moving forward as of July 1.

Additionally, effective July 1, there will be a premium rate reduction for optional life insurance for the following age brackets:

• Ages 45-49: decreases from $0.14 to $0.12 per month per $1,000 of coverage
• Ages 55-59: decreases from $0.33 to $0.31 per month per $1,000 of coverage
• Ages 60-64: decreases from $0.59 to $0.54 per month per $1,000 of coverage
• Ages 65-69: decreases from $1.06 to $1.02 per month per $1,000 of coverage

Please contact the Benefits Team at benefits@jmu.edu or 540-568-3593 if you have any questions.

July's Featured Benefit

This month’s featured benefit is…

Guaranteed Whole Life Insurance Policy through New York Life Insurance Company

Employees have the ability to purchase a minimum $10,000 to a maximum $100,000 of death benefit on a guaranteed issue basis. The benefits include no medical questions or exams, convenient payments through payroll deduction, coverage available for family members, a lifetime of protection, professional service from a New York Life agent, ability to earn dividends and access to cash value through policy loans, and it stays with you if you change jobs or retire. Rates are locked in at the time of purchase and will not increase unless more coverage is added. Rates are based on employee age and coverage amount at the time of enrollment. Spouses, domestic partners, children, and grandchildren are eligible for a minimum $10,000 and maximum $50,000 of death benefit with no medical questions if the employee participates.

Employee eligibility requirements are:

• Employed full time for 90 days.
• Actively and continuously at work on a full-time basis (minimum 30 hours per week) during the past three months, with the exception of vacations, normal non-working days, and other authorized absences totaling no more than five days.
• If an employee has been working part time for multiple qualifying departments, with cumulative hours above 30 hours per week, they will be eligible for this benefit.
• Age restrictions may apply.

All employees are eligible to sign up once the eligibility requirements have been met.

Eligible employees who wish to speak with a New York Life representative must schedule an appointment. Representatives will be on campus July 13. Appointments can be scheduled by emailing Lisa Van Wickler & Debbie Bolen at lvanwickler@ft.newyorklife.com or dbolen@ft.newyorklife or calling 434-953-5091.

Adult Incapacitated Dependents (AID) Special Enrollment

The State Health Benefits Program (the Program) covers eligible adult dependents until the end of the year in which they turn age 26 (the plans limiting age). The Program allows adult dependents who are incapacitated to remain covered if they meet certain eligibility criteria.

Effective July 1, 2023, Section 2.2-2818 of the Code of Virginia revises the adult incapacitated dependent (AID) requirements for continued coverage as an AID due to a physical or behavioral health condition. The residency requirement that the AID must only reside full-time with the employee and/or other natural/adoptive parent as a member of the employee’s household; has expanded to allow the AID to be “receiving residential support services” which means the AID can be living in a group home, nursing home/convalescent home, long-term care facility or similar facility that provides services for physically and/or mentally disabled patients.

To comply with the new AID criteria, the Program will allow a one-time (60-day) Special Enrollment Period from Saturday, July 1, 2023 through Tuesday, August 29, 2023 for any eligible AID to be enrolled if they meet the new expanded residency criteria (in addition to meeting the other eligibility and medical criteria). To be considered for this one-time Special Enrollment, of your eligible adult dependent as an AID, you must do the following:

• Complete and return the AID Eligibility Verification form and the State Health Benefits Enrollment form for Active Employees between Saturday, July 1 – Tuesday, August 29.
• Contact your applicable health plan directly (beginning July 1) to request the necessary paperwork to begin the medical review process of the adult dependent.

This one-time Special Enrollment will be a prospective election and, if approved, will be effective the first of the month following receipt of the completed forms. You have an additional 60 days from your submission date to submit all required supporting documentation to the Office of Health Benefits (OHB).

The AID Eligibility Verification form and the State Health Benefits enrollment form and any supporting eligibility documentation must be returned directly to OHB for consideration. Submit completed forms and supporting documentation via email to ohb@dhrm.virginia.gov, fax to 804-371-0231 or via mail (postmarked no later than Tuesday, August 29, 2023) to the following:

Department of Human Resource Management

Office of Health Benefits

Re: AID Special Enrollment

101 N. 14th Street Richmond, VA 23219

If the enrollment request is not received by Tuesday, August 29, 2023, you will have missed the opportunity for this Special Enrollment election to enroll your AID. Which means that you will not be able to request a review for your AID unless there is another consistent qualifying life event that would allow such a change.

Keep in mind, that this one-time Special Enrollment is only an eligibility review; your health plan will still need to review, to determine if your adult dependent meets the medical criteria as an incapacitated dependent. Therefore, any required medical documentation to determine incapacitation must be submitted to your enrolled health plan. It is your responsibility to contact Member Services for your applicable health plan on the phone number listed on your health insurance card.

Note: This Special Enrollment does not apply to adult dependents currently enrolled in a health plan under the Program that reach the plan’s limiting age this year. These adult dependents will still lose health coverage on December 31, 2023, and the normal process for handling AIDs will continue to be adhered, and those impacted employees will be notified and receive guidance by their Benefits Administrator in the Fall 2023.

Also, if you currently have an approved AID on your health plan, there is no action required during this Special Enrollment.

Need to talk with an expert?

• July 7 - Punchai Paul Vutiprichar - Fidelity scheduling or 800-642-7131 (virtual appointments)
• July 13 - New York Life, Lisa Van Wickler - lvanwickler@ft.newyorklife.com or 434-953-5091
• July 25 - FIRM, Philp Harris - Online scheduling
• July 25 - TIAA, Jay Colligan - Online scheduling or eugene.colligan@tiaa.org
• July 26 - MissionSquare, Janice Parker - Online scheduling or jparker@missionsq.org

Contract Negotiations: Mid-Atlantic Women’s Care (Harrisonburg OBGYN) and Anthem

Many employees received information from Harrisonburg OBGYN, notifying them that their contract with Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield is set to terminate on August 1. Mid-Atlantic Women’s Care and Anthem are continuing their negotiations and are hopeful to reach a solution prior to this date.

Although the notice indicates to contact your benefits administrator to advocate with Anthem, as state employees, our insurance is procured through the Office of Health Benefits (OHB) at the Department of Human Resource Management. The Benefits Team made OHB aware of the communication; however, OHB has no direct authority over the contractual agreement process between Anthem and their providers.

Contract negotiations can be a stressful time, especially when providers send notifications of the possibility of terminating contracts. We are hoping this issue resolves itself prior to August 1; but in the meantime, feel free to reach out to Anthem’s Member Services at 1-800-552-2682 to express your concern.

Save the Date: Money Matters Financial Seminar - October 17

We are excited to host Money Matters, a day-long financial seminar, on October 17 at the Festival Conference & Student Center.

The day's event will include:

• Various workshops throughout the day ( Medicare 101, Understanding Your Investments, Credit Reports & Scores, Understanding The Home Buying Process, Why Everyone Needs a Will, etc..)
• Vendor Fair
• Lunch and keynote speaker
• Spanish workshops

Upcoming Benefits Training: Retirement 101: Understanding your VRS Retirement

Are you contemplating retirement? Have you set a retirement date? What do you do next? What benefits will you receive? What is the timing on paperwork?

Come to Retirement 101 and learn the answers to all of these questions and more!

Learn about your retirement options through the Virginia Retirement System (VRS), discuss the impact on benefits when you retire, and learn how myVRS and Human Resources can aid in retirement planning.

Retirement 101: Understanding Your VRS Retirement (TD1212)

Tuesday, August 1, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Register with course number TD1212 in MyMadison

JMU Safety Champion Series - July 12

As employees of James Madison University, we have a responsibility to maintain a safe work environment. Our campus buildings encompass offices, classrooms, dorms, dining areas, etc. With such a vast number of people and buildings, we need to keep safety in the forefront of our minds.

In this workshop series, we intend to put emergency preparedness and safety on automatic to keep all of our JMU community safe.

As a "Safety Champion" you will gain a new perspective on safety and ways to respond appropriately to any emergency situation you may encounter at work and/or at home. Each participant who attends all six three-hour workshops, will receive a certificate of completion. For more details on the JMU Safety Champion Series and to register, visit https://www.jmu.edu/talentdevelopment/workshops/jmu-safety-champion-series.shtml.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

This bulletin has been brought to you by the JMU Benefits Team. If you have any questions or would like to reach out to us, please give us a call at 540-568-3593, visit us on the web at www.jmu.edu/humanresources/benefits, or email us at benefits@jmu.edu. Look for the Live Chat on our website and reach one of us instantly!