Open Enrollment for Health, Dental, Vision, FlexElect Reimbursement Accounts, and Cash Options

Open Enrollment is September 13 through October 8, 2010. If you want to enroll in these benefit programs, or make a change to your current enrollment, contact your Personnel Office for the necessary forms. Changes you make during the 2010 open enrollment take effect January 1, 2011.

Changes for 2011

Health, Dental, Vision, and Cash Options

• Beginning January 1, 2011 if you have children, they are eligible for dependent coverage with the Health, Dental, and Vision Programs up to the age of 26. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Act), as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010, extends dependent coverage from age 23 to age 26. This provision is effective January 1, 2011.
• Effective January 1, 2011, State employees, who are dependents on their parent's benefits, whether or not the parent(s) is/are a State employee(s), are now eligible to receive the cash in lieu of health and dental coverage. This is a change from previous years and will bring the State into compliance with the new federal health care reform requirements.

Dental

• A dependent child, who is a State employee and eligible for a State-sponsored dental plan in his or her own right, is now eligible to enroll in their parent's State sponsored dental plan. This is a change from previous years and will bring the State into compliance with the new federal health care reform requirements.
• DeltaCare will no longer be providing services in the following counties: Butte, Humboldt, Merced, San Luis Obispo, Shasta, and Sutter

Vision

• The premium paid to Vision Service Plan (VSP) for vision coverage will decrease to $8.64 and will continue to be fully paid by the State.

FlexElect Medical Reimbursement Accounts

• Over-the-Counter (OTC) medicines and drugs (not prescribed by a physician) are no longer allowed as a reimbursable expense through a Flexible Spending Account as of January 1, 2011, due to a change in the Internal Revenue Code. In order to be reimbursed for such items as allergy medications, smoking cessation medications, aspirin, cold medications, vitamins and nutritional supplements, etc., you must have a prescription from a physician.

For more Open Enrollment information use the links below:

• Health Plans
• Dental
• Consolidated Benefits (For excluded employees and eligible represented employees in Bargaining Units 2, 7, 8, 16, 17, 18 and 19)
• FlexElect Reimbursement Accounts
• Cash Options (cash in lieu of health or dental benefits)
• COBRA Continuation Coverage

Updated September 13, 2010 at 3:50 PM.