MAKING CHANGES?

It’s totally online for most people, at atyourservice.ucop.edu. Select the “Open Enrollment 2014” icon.

If you need assistance or don’t have access to a computer, contact your local benefits office:

Davis campus — Human Resources Administration Building, Orchard Park Drive (west of La Rue Road). Benefits Office customer service walk-in hours, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Note: The HR building is closed during the noon hour.) Benefits Office telephone hours, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Telephone: (530) 752-1774.

Sacramento campus — Ticon III, 2730 Stockton Blvd. Benefits Department hours, 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Telephone: (916) 734-8099.

Or, try to attend any of a number of presentations or help desk sessions (see the schedule here, for both the Davis and Sacramento campuses).

The open enrollment website includes the OE booklet as a PDF and provides a number of tools:

• To-Do List — including links for open enrollment booklets (as PDFs)
• Tips for Choosing a Medical Plan
• Medical Plan Chooser — an interactive tool that helps you find the best medical plan based on your personal profile and preferences
• Calculators — for health and dependent care flexible savings accounts, and health savings account contributions
• Find a Doctor

You’ll also find a page for each medical plan, with information about how the plan works and why it may be a "best fit" for you. Each page includes links to the plan's website and doctor directory.

Other pages describe the dental, vision and legal plans, with links to the plan websites.

Each plan page also includes changes for 2014 (if applicable) and premiums.

NO CHANGES?

You have it easy: Just sit tight; you don’t need to do anything.

But, remember: If you wish to have a health and-or dependent care flexible savings account in 2014, you must re-enroll. These accounts do not renew automatically. You must sign up again and declare how much you will contribute.

If you haven’t read any other information about open enrollment, PLEASE read this:

Open enrollment starts Monday, and, if you’re thinking, “No changes for me, I’m good to go,” please think again. UC is dropping four medical plans — and that means an estimated one out of every five employees at UC Davis must pick a new plan.

So, if you haven’t started your homework, you may want to do so. Enrollment runs from 8 a.m. Oct. 28 to 5 p.m. Nov. 26, two days before Thanksgiving. Booklets, including premium costs, should be arriving in your home mailboxes this week.

In the interest of “better value and clearer choices,” UC is dropping:

• Anthem Blue Cross PLUS (point-of-service plan)
• Anthem Blue Cross PPO (preferred provider organization)
• Anthem Lumenos PPO with HRA (health reimbursement account)
• Health Net full network HMO (health maintenance organization)

If you’re in any of these, you must choose a new plan. See below for what happens if you don’t make a choice.

Options for 2014

All UC Davis employees — even those whose plans are continuing — are being offered two new plans:

• Blue Shield Health Savings Plan, a PPO with a UC-funded health savings account, and you can contribute to the account as well, tax-free
• UC Care, a PPO plan created just for UC, with access to UC doctors and medical centers as well as the entire Blue Shield PPO network

And four existing plans:

• Health Net Blue and Gold HMO, with a network designed just for UC
• Kaiser Permanente HMO
• Western Health Advantage, an HMO in the UC Davis area
• Core, a high-deductible, catastrophic plan with a new administrator, Blue Shield

“Even if your plan is continuing, now is the time to make sure it’s the right plan for you,” the open enrollment website advises.

The open enrollment website includes an FAQ that answers such questions as: What plans are being offered to replace those that are going away, and which of the new medical plans is most like the one I have now?

Read more about your medical plan choices for 2014. And get the answer to the No. 1 question at UC Davis: Which medical plans will allow for access to Davis-Sacramento area Sutter doctors and hospitals next year?

Default enrollment

If your plan is going away, and you don’t choose a repleacement, UC will enroll you in the most comparable plan.

“The big problem with allowing a default is that the new plan may not offer your current providers,” said Guerren Solbach, health care facilitator at UC Davis. The principle plan with this issue is the Health Net Blue and Gold HMO: “If Health Net full network HMO members who use Sutter Medical Group allow themselves to be defaulted into Health Net Blue and Gold, they will lose access to Sutter.

“They might be eligible for transition assistance (temporary access to Sutter) under certain circumstances if they are in the middle of treatment, but that is at Health Net’s discretion.  These people need to make a conscious, deliberate choice between their Sutter doctors and their wallets, because with UC Care they are paying 20 percent out of pocket, up to $3,000 per person.”

The 'rest' of open enrollment

• Enroll (or de-enroll) family members in your health plans.

• Change dental plan (UC has one provider, Delta Dental, with two plans: Delta Dental PPO and DeltaCare USA, an HMO).

• Enroll or re-enroll in health and dependent care flexible savings accounts — Remember, re-enrollment is not automatic. You must declare a contribution amount (to be deducted from your paychecks). If you enroll in the Blue Shield Health Savings Plan, you cannot have a health FSA.

If you want to change your primary care physician and you are not changing your medical plan, call your plan to request the change. See your plan ID card for the phone number.

As for the ARAG Legal plan, your enrollment will continue unless you take action to drop out. No new enrollments are being taken this year.

Note for employees in collective bargaining units with expired contracts: You can make changes during open enrollment, but your premiums will remain unchanged until new rates are agreed to in negotiations or become effective in accordance with  the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, or HEERA.

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