From oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Wed Apr 4 10:04:38 2012 From: oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us (Business Managers-OEBB) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 10:04:38 -0700 Subject: [OEBBBUSMAN] IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM OEBB -- Scheduling Insurance Committee Meetings for 2012-13 Plan Year Message-ID: 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 (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 *****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 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 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 (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 *****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. ************************************ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Insurance Committee Form 2012.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 846035 bytes Desc: Insurance Committee Form 2012.pdf URL: From oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Thu Apr 5 11:17:05 2012 From: oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us (Business Managers-OEBB) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2012 11:17:05 -0700 Subject: [OEBBBUSMAN] SAVE THE DATE - OEBB Benefits Information Exchange (BIE) Group meets April 19 Message-ID: Dear Business Managers, Premium Contacts, and Benefits Administrators: We hope you'll be able to join us (online or in person) April 19 at 2:00 pm for this month's meeting of the OEBB Benefits Information Exchange (BIE) Group. We'll be using iLinc to host the meeting as a webinar rather than using the video stream and conference call technology we've used in the past. We hope this will improve the audio and video quality as well as allow those joining us remotely to more easily contribute to the conversation. The BIE Group meets on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 2:00 pm (except no meetings in August or September due to Open Enrollment). A calendar showing the meeting dates for 2012 is attached for your convenience. Each meeting's agenda and webinar link will be distributed via e-mail the day before the meeting. The purpose of the BIE Group is to facilitate improved communication between OEBB and participating educational entities. All interested entity representatives (business managers, benefit representatives, payroll staff, IT staff, etc.) are welcome to attend either in person or via the iLinc webinar. Please share this invitation and calendar with any appropriate coworkers who may not be on our listserv. Typical agenda items include a recap of that month's board meeting, a walk-through of one or two reports in Report Mart, and updates on upcoming MyOEBB system modifications and member communications. We also invite questions and suggestions on any topics you would like to discuss. Mark your calendars! We hope you'll be able to join us for this month's meeting on April 19 at 2:00 pm. Thank you, Jackie Cowsill Communications Coordinator Oregon Educators Benefit Board Voice: (503) 378-5353 Fax: (503) 378-5832 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: BIE 2012 Calendar.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 246227 bytes Desc: BIE 2012 Calendar.pdf URL: From oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Mon Apr 9 07:57:34 2012 From: oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us (Business Managers-OEBB) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 07:57:34 -0700 Subject: [OEBBBUSMAN] ODS changing OEBB member ID cards Message-ID: Dear Business Managers and Benefits Administrators: ODS will soon start issuing OEBB members a new style of member ID card. Only new members and those re-ordering additional or replacement cards will receive one, but we wanted to make you aware of the upcoming change. In addition to changing the look and material of the card, an exciting new feature of the cards will be the ability to download a digital version of the ODS mobile ID card, either as a PDF or as a smartphone app. ODS will be sending educational entities more complete details soon. If you have further questions about these changes, please contact ODS Customer Service directly at 866-923-0409. Thank you, Jackie Cowsill Communications Coordinator Oregon Educators Benefit Board -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Thu Apr 12 13:03:55 2012 From: oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us (Business Managers-OEBB) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:03:55 -0700 Subject: [OEBBBUSMAN] Watch today's OEBB Board Meeting live! Message-ID: You can watch today's OEBB Board Meeting live by clicking the link below. http://benefitboards.das.state.or.us/public_folder.html?folder=7 If you have any public comments for the Board, please send to Rose.mann at state.or.us. Please put "public comment" in the subject line. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Mon Apr 16 09:16:38 2012 From: oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us (Business Managers-OEBB) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:16:38 -0700 Subject: [OEBBBUSMAN] Important change to ODS Rx coverage effective July 1 Message-ID: Dear Business Managers & Benefits Administrators: ODS will soon begin the process to no longer cover Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI) prescriptions that have comparable over-the-counter (OTC) options available for members to purchase. Effective July 1, 2012, this will affect members obtaining prescriptions for a PPI through their ODS pharmacy benefits. This week ODS will begin faxing letters to providers who have recently prescribed these medications for an OEBB member, informing the physician of the impending coverage change as well as pointing them to sources of medical evidence warning against long-term use of these medications. Next week ODS will begin mailing letters (samples attached) to all OEBB members who have recently filled a prescription for a PPI medication, informing them of the change and the OTC alternatives. These letters also include a health warning about long-term use of these types of medications, recommending the member discuss treatment options with their doctor. If you have any questions about this change or the letters, please contact ODS Pharmacy Customer Service at 866-923-0411. Thank you, Jackie Cowsill Communications Coordinator Oregon Educators Benefit Board -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: OEBB PPI Member Letter for 7 1 2012 _4 13 12.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 358904 bytes Desc: OEBB PPI Member Letter for 7 1 2012 _4 13 12.pdf URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ODS19 OEBB PPI Quantity Limit Member letter 2012 _4 13 12.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 345948 bytes Desc: ODS19 OEBB PPI Quantity Limit Member letter 2012 _4 13 12.pdf URL: From oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Wed Apr 18 14:39:20 2012 From: oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us (Business Managers-OEBB) Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:39:20 -0700 Subject: [OEBBBUSMAN] Thurs 4/19, 2pm -- OEBB's Benefits Information Exchange (BIE) Meeting Message-ID: Dear Business Managers, Premium Contacts and Benefits Administrators: Please join us Thursday, April 19, 2012, either online or in person, at 2:00pm for our monthly Benefits and Information Exchange (BIE) Group meeting. (We meet the 3rd Thursday of each month, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm.) Agenda and handouts for this month's meeting are attached. ________________________________ Note: We're trying new technology (iLinc) for this meeting, which may require you to download some software. Want to prepare your system ahead of time? https://oregon.ilinc.com/systest/xcxkcvm At 2:00pm on the 19th you can join the iLinc session by clicking this link, or pasting it into your browser address bar: https://oregon.ilinc.com/join/xcxkcvm Use your phone to dial in to: 1-800-689-9374, passcode: 595753 (The instructions, link and dial-in number are also noted on the agenda.) ________________________________ All interested entity representatives (business managers, benefit representatives, payroll staff, IT staff, etc.) are welcome to attend either in person or via iLinc. For those joining us in person, note that we will be meeting in the Bachelor Butte Conference Room, located downstairs from the PEBB/OEBB Board Room. We hope you will be able to join us. Jackie Cowsill Communications Coordinator Oregon Educators Benefit Board Voice: (503) 378-5353 Fax: (503) 378-5832 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Agenda - BIE group 04-19-12.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 158400 bytes Desc: Agenda - BIE group 04-19-12.pdf URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Attachments -- April 19, 2012 -- BIE Group Meeting.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 642099 bytes Desc: Attachments -- April 19, 2012 -- BIE Group Meeting.pdf URL: From oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Thu Apr 26 08:44:28 2012 From: oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us (Business Managers-OEBB) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:44:28 -0700 Subject: [OEBBBUSMAN] Watch today's OEBB Board Meeting live! Message-ID: You can watch today's OEBB Board Meeting live by clicking the link below. http://benefitboards.das.state.or.us/public_folder.html?folder=7 If you have any public comments for the Board, please send to Rose.mann at state.or.us. Please put "public comment" in the subject line. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Fri Apr 27 11:49:11 2012 From: oebbbusman at listsmart.osl.state.or.us (Business Managers-OEBB) Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:49:11 -0700 Subject: [OEBBBUSMAN] OEBB Approves Plans, Designs and Rates for 2012-13 Message-ID: Dear Superintendents, Business Managers and Benefit Representatives: At its April 26th 2012 Board meeting, the OEBB board voted on plan design and rate renewals for the upcoming 2012-13 plan year. We wanted to share the information with you as soon as possible to allow you to consider the changes and rates in your budget and collective bargaining discussions. The estimated overall increase for medical plan rates for the 2012-13 plan year is 7.1 percent. Rates for ODS medical plans 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 will each increase by about 7.49 percent and ODS medical plan 4 will increase by 3.99 percent. Kaiser plan 1 rates will see an increase of 5.94 percent, while Kaiser plan 1A will increase by only 4.70 percent. As of October 1, 2012, Providence Health Plan plans 2 and 2A will no longer be available under the OEBB benefits program. As you may know, the two Providence medical plans have experienced significant rate increases in each of the past three years. The Providence plans have offered rich benefit designs and have experienced higher than anticipated utilization during each of the four plans years. Providence did not believe, and OEBB agreed, that continuing to offer these two plans was in the best interest of OEBB members and felt that the plans did not represent sustainable options. Providence has been an excellent partner and has brought a lot of value to the OEBB benefits program. Employees and early retirees who are enrolled in one of the two Providence medical plans at this time will need to select another medical plan option during the 2012 open enrollment period, but will be able to continue care with their current providers if selecting one of the ODS medical plan options. Another change that was approved for ODS medical plans 3 through 8 is to attach the same pharmacy option to all plans. In the past, employee groups could select from three pharmacy plan options. As of October 1, 2012, all ODS plans other than plan 9 will offer the pharmacy benefits available under the current plan B option. The Board also approved the addition of a "value tier" on the pharmacy coverage under ODS Medical Plan 9. This will help those enrolled in Plan 9 who have certain chronic conditions to receive a benefit toward medications used to manage those chronic conditions prior to meeting the deductible under this high-deductible, consumer-driven health plan. All other medications will be handled the same way as they are today. Rates for the ODS vision plans will increase by 7.49 percent. Kaiser will not increase the rate for the Kaiser vision plan offering. There are no plan design changes to any of the vision plans. OEBB moved to include orthodontia coverage under all but one ODS dental plan offering beginning October 1, 2012. The decision to include orthodontia coverage in the dental plans was due in part to an earlier Board decision to remove limitations on the number of plans each employee group will now be able to offer. The Board understands that allowing more choice at the employee level could be an additional administrative burden on entities as well as employees trying to make the right choices. In addition, allowing an individual to decide whether to enroll in an orthodontia plan without regard to the dental plan coverage would have resulted in adverse selection and unsustainable rates for an orthodontia benefit. OEBB will still offer one dental plan without orthodontia coverage for those employees who do not wish to have orthodontia coverage and/or who want a lower-cost option that still provides preventive dental care and a comprehensive level of coverage for themselves and their families. Even with the move to include orthodontia coverage in most of the dental plans, under the ODS dental plans, the largest increase will be just under 7.5 percent with many employees realizing a decrease of around 0.50 percent. Employees currently under ODS Dental Plan 6 with orthodontia who have no need for orthodontia coverage and remain on Plan 6 will see a decrease in premiums of nearly 10.90 percent. Another change under the dental program is that employees who want to enroll in the Kaiser dental plan can do so without having a Kaiser medical plan. This has been requested by employees in the past and the Board took those requests into consideration when deciding to remove that requirement. Orthodontia coverage will be included in the Kaiser dental plan beginning October 1, 2012, as well. Kaiser dental plan rates will actually decrease for the 2012-13 plan year by as much as 12.61 percent for those individuals currently on a Kaiser plan with orthodontia coverage. All other Kaiser dental plan enrollees will see a decrease of 7 percent and have an orthodontia benefit available to them. The Willamette Dental option has always included an orthodontia benefit and will continue to do so. There is no rate increase on the Willamette Dental plan. The Board also considered and approved the rate renewal proposed for coverages available through The Standard. The Basic Life Insurance rates will increase by 5 percent on October 1, 2012, but will still remain more than seven cents per $1,000 in coverage lower than the average pre-OEBB rate for basic life coverage. Optional employee, spouse and child life rates will not change, nor with Basic and Optional accidental death and dismemberment rates. Rates for the short-term disability options will increase by 2 percent, and the rates for the long-term disability options will increase by 5 percent - both still lower than the average pre-OEBB rates in 2008. The OEBB administrative fee will increase slightly for the 2012-13 plan year. The Board had decreased its administrative fee from 0.95 percent to 0.85 percent for the 2011-12 plan year. The administrative fee is based on the overall medical, dental and vision premiums collected throughout the year. With the larger than anticipated movement to lower-cost medical plans for 2011-12 and the expectation that this trend may continue, as of October 1, 2012, the fee will increase to 0.90 percent. The OEBB administrative fee is authorized by ORS 243.880 and may not exceed 2 percent. It is the only revenue stream available to fund the Board's operating expenses. OEBB staff is working to translate the renewal increases into actual premium rates at this time. We anticipate posting the new rates on our website on or around May 1 and will be prepared to talk about the plan changes and rate renewals during the insurance committee meetings scheduled for the month of May and into early June. I hope this information is helpful to you and your coworkers and peers. The document presented to the Board during the rate renewal discussion is now posted on the OEBB website at: http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB/docs/MeetingAttachments/2012/BoardHandout A_042612.pdf. We've also posted the criteria and details relating to the addition of bariatric surgery as a covered benefit under both the ODS and Kaiser medical plans effective October 1, 2012, at: http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB/docs/MeetingAttachments/2012/BariatricSur geryCriteria.pdf . If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or comments regarding these Board decisions, please send them to: OEBB.Board at state.or.us or feel free to give me at call at 503-378-5133. Thank you. Sincerely, Denise L. Hall Denise L. Hall, Deputy Administrator Oregon Educators Benefit Board http://egov.oregon.gov/OHA/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 *****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. ************************************ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: