STATE OF CONNECTICUT
NANCY WYMAN COMPTROLLER	OFFICE OF THE STATE COMPTROLLER 55 ELM STREET HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 06106-1775	MARK OJAKIAN DEPUTY COMPTROLLER

COMPTROLLER'S MEMORANDUM NO. 2008-16

May 5, 2008

TO THE HEADS OF ALL STATE AGENCIES

I. INTRODUCTION

The state employee health insurance annual open enrollment period will be held from May 19, 2008 through June 6, 2008, for coverage effective July 1, 2008. In that connection, this memorandum establishes available health plan choices, health insurance rates and the effective payroll dates, and discusses enrollment procedures.

Full details of plan choices will be available in the HealthCare Options planner that will be mailed to all employees. Open enrollment fairs will not be held this year. For employees that do not respond during this year's open enrollment period, their health insurance status will remain unchanged, except that they will be affected by any change in the deduction amount for their plans. Employees will not be able to enroll in, change, or add dependents to a plan other than during this open enrollment period, except under limited circumstances in response to changes in their work or family status. The employee is responsible for contacting their agency personnel/payroll representative to file the appropriate forms within 30 days of the event that necessitates a change in enrollment or plan.

II. PLAN CHOICES AND CARRIERS

A. Medical Plans - For the 2008-2009 plan year there are no changes in the medical plan offerings. The medical benefits of all the plans remain aligned and unchanged from last year.

Anthem, Health Net and Oxford will continue to offer Point of Service (POS), Point of Enrollment (POE), and Point of Enrollment-Gatekeeper (POE-G) plans.

Medical Plan Network Enhancements

Each of the medical plan carriers now offers access to national provider networks in addition to Connecticut providers. An employee may be able to change to a POE plan, keep the same providers, have access to a larger network of providers than previously, and also reduce their payroll deduction for health insurance. Full details of the expanded networks are included in the HealthCare Options Planner that will be mailed to eligible employees and retirees. Employees should be advised to review these network changes carefully.

As a result of the expanded national networks, an employee who resides in another state in the region may be able to enroll in a POE-type plan at a lower payroll deduction than in the Out of Area plan and still have access to providers in Connecticut as well as in other states. Employees who reside outside of Connecticut are still allowed to choose from the two Out-of-Area Plans. The Oxford USA Plan and the Anthem Out-of-Area plan will continue to be available.

B. Prescription Drug Plan - For the 2008-2009 plan year there are no changes to the State's prescription drug offering. As a result of a merger, the new name of the State's pharmacy benefits provider is Caremark.

C. Dental Plans - The CIGNA DHMO plan, a dental HMO, replaces the Aetna DMO plan. Employees currently enrolled in the Aetna DMO Dental Plan will automatically be changed to the CIGNA Dental DMO, unless they choose another dental plan during the open enrollment period. A special letter will be mailed to all employees enrolled in the Aetna plan notifying them of the change to the CIGNA plan.

III. RATES

The health insurance rates for the period from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 have been modified to reflect the premiums negotiated with the carriers. The attached rate chart reflects the employee premium shares for the bi-weekly pay periods and includes monthly employee premium shares for benefits billing purposes. The semi-monthly schedule will be distributed to agencies that so require.

IV. PAYROLL EFFECTIVE DATES

The premium changes announced herein are effective with the following payroll periods:

V. ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES

Employees who choose to remain with their existing plans do not have to complete a new health insurance enrollment statement.

All Enrollment Statements must be produced using the CORE-CT Benefits Administration system.

Agencies can begin printing Open Enrollment Statements on Monday, May 19, 2008. Enrollment statements should be produced only for those employees seeking to make a change during this open enrollment period.

Agencies can enter new elections any time on and after May 19, 2008. The enrollment statement will have a return date of June 6, 2008 printed on them. Agencies will have until noon on June 13, 2008 to complete data entry of employee elections (semi-monthly transactions must be completed by close of business June 11, 2008). Therefore, agencies can choose to accept enrollment statements from employees after June 6, 2008. Be advised that the open enrollment process will be closed to agencies at noon on June 13, 2008.

Civil Union Enrollment:

All Civil Union enrollments or changes are to be processed by the Retirement & Benefit Services Division, Central Benefits Unit.

Employees seeking to add medical and/or dental coverage for their civil union partners and dependent children should be instructed to submit the same documentation to their employing agency that is required of married employees. For federal income tax purposes, if the employee provides more than fifty percent of a civil union partner's financial support, the employee should also provide a signed statement to their employing agency stating that fact.

The employing agency, not the employee, is required to submit a representation from the agency as to the employee's intent regarding health insurance coverage along with a copy of the above mentioned documents to the Central Benefits Unit.

Upon its receipt of these materials, the Central Benefits Unit will process the change to the employee's records in Core-CT associated with health care coverage for civil union partners and will notify the agency of such action.

Domestic Partner Enrollment:

All Domestic Partner enrollments or changes are to be processed by the Retirement & Benefit Services Division, Central Benefits Unit. The employing agency, not the employee, is required to submit a representation from the agency as to the employee's intent regarding health insurance coverage. Agencies are to use the following procedures:

(1) For an employee who has enrolled a domestic partner in their health plan prior to the 2008 open enrollment period and requests a change to another carrier or coverage option, the Agency must send a copy of the completed and signed Core-CT Enrollment Statement to the Central Benefits Unit. This unit is responsible for processing the changes. The Confirmation Statement will be emailed to the Agency.

(2) Employees who wish to enroll their domestic partner during the 2008 open enrollment period must submit an Affidavit of Domestic Partnership and supporting documentation to their agency who in turn will forward it to the Central Benefits Unit. Coverage will be effective July 1, 2008, provided the Affidavit of Domestic Partnership was signed in May or June 2008. Upon acceptance of an Affidavit, the Central Benefits Unit will email an Enrollment Statement to the Agency. After the employee completes the Enrollment Statement, the Agency should return it to the Central Benefits Unit, which will process the enrollment changes, and email the Confirmation Statement to the Agency.

(3) Employees who have an existing approved Affidavit on file with the Central Benefits Unit and wish to enroll their domestic partner during the 2008 open enrollment period must notify their Agency. The Agency must send a copy of the completed and signed Core-CT Enrollment Statement to the Central Benefits Unit, which will process the enrollment changes, and email the Confirmation Statement to the Agency.

Refer to Comptroller's Memorandum 2000-13 for additional information regarding Domestic Partner Benefit Enrollment.

VI. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Be advised that agencies must process and finalize all open Event Maintenance (CTEM) events and BAS activity by noon, May 16, 2008 or those events may not be processed correctly. In addition to the automated open events query sent to agencies via email, agencies can print the following reports to help identify such events:

Benefits>

Manage Automated Enrollment>Investigate Exceptions>Benefit Terminations
Manage Automated Enrollment>Investigate Exceptions >Invalid Benefit Elections Dept
Manage Automated Enrollment>Investigate Exceptions >Missing Elections Rpt
Reports>Audits>Base Benefit Audit by Agency

In conjunction with open enrollment, agencies may have other events such as new hires or family status changes. For these events, normal event maintenance processing will continue, for instance:

• For any employee hired/rehired on or after May 1, 2008, do not process benefits using the open enrollment event; instead enroll them in benefits under the hire/rehire event.
• For any family status change events on or after May 1, 2008 do not process benefits using the open enrollment event; instead enroll them in benefits under the family status change event.

Data cleanup/error corrections attributable to the open enrollment period must be completed in accordance with the following deadlines: semi-monthly employees must be completed by close of business June 11, 2008 and bi-weekly employees must be completed by noon on June 13, 2008.

In addition to printing Confirmation Statements for changes made as a result of family status, Confirmation Statements should also be printed for open enrollment changes.

Further information concerning open enrollment is available on the Core-CT website at:

http://www.core-ct.state.ct.us/user/hrjobaids/ben/default.htm

VII. NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES

Please inform your employees of the annual open enrollment and direct them to the Comptroller's Web site at www.osc.state.ct.us to obtain the information necessary for them to make an informed choice during the open enrollment period.

The HealthCare Options planner will be mailed to all employees eligible for state-paid health benefits. Be advised that it will be mailed to the "HOME" address on the CORE-CT Personal Data page. If this address is other than the employee's home address, the Agency will be responsible for forwarding the planner to the employee. The planner will include a schedule of all applicable biweekly payroll deductions, and a description of available options. Planners that are rejected by the Post Office because of an incorrect address will be sent to the employing agency for address correction. The semi-monthly and 100% premium rate schedules will be sent to the affected agencies.

VIII. QUESTIONS

Personnel or payroll staff who have questions concerning this memorandum should contact the Comptroller's Retirement & Benefit Services Division, Central Benefits Unit, at (860) 702-3535. Kindly refrain from directing employees to this telephone number.

Very truly yours,

Nancy Wyman
State Comptroller

NW/TW
Attachment

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