HEALTH BENEFITS CHANGES ANNOUNCED October 25, 2004
In the "Monday" Memo of October 25, 2004 Hempfling announced some a
series of changes having mostly to do with funding aspects of the Lab's
Health plan. A pdf version of the
announcement can be seen by clicking here . As interperted here
the main effect upon current retirees has to do with which providers are
"in network".
Quotations from Hempflings's announcement:
> - We will switch from the current CIGNA-PPO to CIGNA's less-expensive
"Open
> Access Plus" PPO plan. This plan has a slightly different roster
of
> in-network physicians. Before deciding to switch PPOs,
we had CIGNA do an
> analysis to determine what kind of impact such a change would
have. The
> results of that analysis showed that in 2003, a total of 77 percent
of all
> our claims to CIGNA were covered in-network. If we had been using
the Open
> Access Plus plan at that time, 76 percent would have been covered
> in-network. This change will have an impact on a relatively small
number of
> employees who will find that some of their doctors are not in
the Open
> Access Plus network. You can visit the CIGNA website
> (http://www.cigna.com/health/)
to determine whether or not your providers
> are in this new PPO plan.
> ...
> This is a brief overview of the changes. Please bear in mind
that there are
> no changes in plan design features such as co-pays and deductibles.
> Employees will receive written materials describing all of the
medical plan
> changes and adjusted premiums later this week.
Dec. 30 , 2004