Benefits Update

We have important updates to share about your Health/Benefits as a Northshore School District employee for the 2013 plan year. This information is from Chris Tracy, the NSEA representative to the Health/Benefits Committee.

The Northshore School District Health/Benefits open enrollment from the 2013 Plan Year will be from Thursday, November 1 through Friday, November 30, 2012.

Life Insurance 
The NSD will be moving to a new life insurance provider and the Health/Benefits Committee has negotiated with the new carrier guaranteed acceptance for Supplemental Life Insurance (2x or 3x salary) and for dependent life insurance during the open enrollment period. This is a one-time event when no health questionnaire is needed!

Dental, Vision, Hearing Insurance 
There will be no changes in program or premiums for NSD dental, vision and hearing benefits for the 2013 plan year. Willamette dental premiums will be slightly lower than in 2012.

Medical Programs
Recent state and federal regulations necessitated some changes to our medical programs and pricing. As a result, the NSD Health/Benefits Committee--made up of representatives from all NSD employee groups--met over the summer and during the fall to modify our 2013 Regence self-insured programs and premiums. The Health/Benefits Committee earmarked $1.65 million from medical reserves to buy down premiums.

NSD will again offer three traditional, self-insured, medical plans (NSD Regence Choice, Standard and Value) plus Group Health and offer a new self-insured Regence High Deductible Plan.

• Beginning January 1, Regence Choice, Standard and Value plans will not cap the number of outpatient mental health and chemical dependency visits each plan year and outpatient visits are no longer subject to the annual medical plan deductible. Office co-pays still apply. 
• To comply with state regulations, single subscribers selecting any medical plan with NSD Dental will have some out of pocket payroll deduction. It is estimated that single subscribers selecting Regence Standard or Value or Group Health with Willamette Dental will have no out of pocket payroll deduction. 
• Regence Standard and Value subscribers that insure full-families will see a modest reduction in out of pocket payroll deductions. Other dependent coverage categories will mostly have slight decreases in out of pocket payroll deductions, depending on the type or number of dependents. 
• While nearly all other school districts recently eliminated their most comprehensive medical program that is similar to our NSD Regence Choice (such as Premera 1), the Health/Benefits Committee was able to preserve Regence Choice as an option for NSD employees---but out of pocket payroll deductions will be going up about $20-$42 per month, with single subscribers seeing the largest out of pocket increase. 
• Group Health subscribers covering dependents will see fairly large decreases in out of pocket payroll deductions, as much as about $130 per month for full-families; the decreases are due to lower claims experience. 

Beginning January 1, the NSD will offer a self-insured NSD Regence High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with a Health Savings Account. At the Benefits Fair, November 1, informational sessions will conducted at 3 pm, 4 pm and 5 pm to discuss the HDHP; employees are advised to attend an informational session before selecting this option as this medical program is so different from traditional medical programs. It will be priced in-between the Regence Value and Standard plans.