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The latest edition of the OEBB newsletter is now available online at the following link: http://www.oregon.gov/DAS/OEBB/docs/Newsletters/2009August/August2009.pdf The current edition includes the following articles: Please forward this message to anyone you think will find the information useful. To sign up for additional OEBB updates sent directly to your inbox, click the link below and subscribe to the OEBB listserv! OEBB listserv: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/oebb If you have received a cancellation notice, it is only because HSD has moved to a different rate structure which necessitates all members to re-enroll. You are not being cancelled from your insurance benefits. Just be sure to use the web calculator to show your out-of-pocket costs and then sign up with OEBB. By now you should have received your OEBB letter regarding insurance for the upcoming year as well as directions from HSD Benefits. I wanted to remind members of the work HEA has been doing on the part of its members to help hold down insurance costs and offer more of what members have been asking for. For the 2009-2010 school year we bargained an increase to $1,000.00 in the monthly amount the district pays for full time members’ benefit packages. Full time members will see this figure on the new web calculator. Part timers receive prorated amounts. A new feature HEA bargained for this year will be the ability to opt out of major medical with compensation. If you opt out you will receive $200 per month, for a full time employee, in taxable salary or you may put use it to fund your Section 125 account, which uses pretax dollars. Part time members may take advantage of this benefit on a prorated basis. If you opt out of major medical but take dental or vision, you may pay for those programs from your opt-out money; the District will not pay for benefits as well as opt-out compensation. If you opt out and are planning on using a spouse’s or partners insurance, keep in mind that in the event of loss of that insurance, you may at that point pick up insurance through the District; you would not need to wait until the next open enrollment period. The insurance plans presented in the OEBB letter indicate that we have gone to a tiered system. Tiered rates are rates that are dependent on the individual need. There are different rates for singles, partners, singe parent and children, and full family. The full family rates in the tiered system are prohibitively expensive and HEA has never wanted families to bear the burden of thousands of dollars of insurance premiums per year. As a result in past years we have always charged members composite rates. Composite rates are where the rates are averaged, so that all members with the same insurance plan pay the same regardless of family structure or need. HEA did hear from some of our single members that felt unfairly treated since they were paying higher premiums to help subsidize families through the composite rate structure. To help with these concerns HEA negotiated an insurance pool with the District which creates savings. These savings are primarily given back to singles to help defer their costs in subsidizing families. Smaller savings are passed along to the Employee+Spouse and Employee+Child groups who also subsidize families but to a smaller degree. Family members already realize very large savings through the composite payments program. This year the pool was able to reduce out-of-pocket costs for singles by over 50% from what they would have paid without the pool using the traditional composite rate structure we’ve used in past years. The larger issue is not whether we are on tiered rates or composite, but that insurance rates are rising at a rate that is difficult to keep up with. Members at less than .6 FTE do not realize pool savings at this time since they pay tiered rates already and don’t put any money into the composite pool where the savings are obtained. If they opt out they do receive a pro-rated opt out benefit. To figure your monthly insurance costs, the District has designed a web tool so that you can enter your medical plan and insurance status and the monthly out-of pocket (rates) will be given to you. If you need to make any plan adjustments and wish to see the cost implications, you can do so with the web tool before you sign up through OEBB. After you use the web tool at https://myhsd.hsd.k12.or.us/Pages/licbencalc.aspx to figure your plan and costs, then be sure to sign up for benefits at the OEBB site. When logging on to the web tool, you will need to add hillnet\ before your log on name. So for example, Mary Smith would be hillnet\smithm. Be sure you are using the correct backslash. HEA will be at the District Benefits Fair for questions or comments and you can always email at kathy.newman@oregoned.org or call 503-645-6776. Thanks to the HEA Bargaining Team for their input and assistance. And a HUGE amount of appreciation to Adam Stewart, the District’s CFO for his countless hours of working and meeting with HEA to help make all this a come together. If he ever has to create another insurance costing spreadsheet, I’m sure it will be too soon! Your HEA Bargaining Team hopes that a good number of members will find added benefit utilizing one of these two programs.
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To contact us:
Kathy Newman--HEA President |
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