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. 2004-16

May 4, 2004

TO THE HEADS OF ALL STATE AGENCIES

INTRODUCTION: The state employee annual health insurance open enrollment effective July 1, 2004 was announced in Comptroller's Memorandum No. 2004-15, dated April 30, 2004. In that connection, this memorandum establishes available health plan choices, health insurance rates and the effective payroll dates; and discusses enrollment procedures.

PLAN CHOICES AND CARRIERS:

1. Medical Plans: For the 2004-2005 plan year, Anthem, ConnectiCare and Health Net will continue to offer Point of Service (POS), Point of Enrollment (POE), and Point of Enrollment-Gatekeeper (POE-G) plans. Anthem Prescription will continue to administer pharmacy benefits for all covered employees, retirees, and dependents, regardless of carrier. The medical benefits of all plans remain aligned and unchanged from last year. As the annual premium for all the medical and dental plans has increased, the corresponding employee premium share has also increased.
2. Dental Plans: There are no benefit changes in the available plans. Anthem will continue to offer their Indemnity Dental Care Plan and the CIGNA Dental Care plan (a dental HMO) remains available.

RATES:

The health insurance rates for the period from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005 have been modified to reflect the annual premium increases. The attached rate chart reflects the employee premium shares based on 26 pay periods for the bi-weekly and semi-monthly pay periods, including monthly employee premium shares for benefits billing purposes.

PAYROLL EFFECTIVE DATES:

By way of background, as a function of the implementation of Core-CT Benefits Administration, health insurance premiums were shifted from pre-payment to concurrent payment. Therefore, the changes announced herein will be effective in the following payroll periods:

ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES:

As a reminder, all events commencing on or after November 1, 2003 require the use of Core-CT Enrollment Statements. The following forms are obsolete: CO-1048A Health Insurance Enrollment Form, CO-1022 COBRA Form, CO-1022-1 Cigna Dental COBRA Form and all health carriers change forms.

Agencies can begin producing open enrollment statements on Monday May 10, 2004. Enrollment statements should be produced only for those employees seeking to make a change during this open enrollment period.

Be advised, agencies must process and finalize all open Event Maintenance (CTEM) events before the May 10 open enrollment period begins, or those events may not be processed correctly. Agencies can print the following reports to help identify such events:

Compensate Employees>

Administer Automated Benefits>Report>Benefit Terminations

Administer Automated Benefits>Report>Invalid Benefit Elections Dept

Administer Automated Benefits>Report>Missing Elections

Administer Base Benefits>Report>Base Benefit Audit by Agency

The open enrollment period for employees to complete and return enrollment statements to their agency personnel/payroll representatives will be from Monday May 10, 2004 through Friday May 28, 2004.

Agencies can enter new elections any time on and after May 10, 2004. Agencies will have until close of business June 4, 2004 to complete data entry of employee elections. The open enrollment process will be closed to agencies at the end of the business day, June 4, 2004.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

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 on or after May 10, 2004, do not process benefits using the open enrollment event, but instead, enroll them in benefits under the hire event.

• For any family status change events on or after May 10, 2004, do not process benefits using the open enrollment event, but 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 June 15, 2004 and bi-weekly employees must be completed by June 28, 2004.

Insofar as confirmation statements may be printed for employees who waive health benefits, or who drop dependents for reasons other than over-age or divorce/legal separation, confirmation statements may also be printed for employees who make changes during open enrollment.

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

Domestic Partner Enrollment

1. If an employee who has enrolled a domestic partner in their health plan prior to the 2004 open enrollment period requests a change to another carrier no further authorization is required for the agency to process the request using the open enrollment event.
2. Employees who wish to enroll their domestic partner during the 2004 open enrollment period must follow the procedures in Comptroller's Memorandum 2000-13. Coverage will be effective July 1, 2004, provided the Affidavit of Domestic Partnership was signed in April, May, or June 2004. Procedures to add a domestic partner during the open enrollment period will be provided to the agency at the time the affidavit is approved.

NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES: The health care planner mailed to employees enrolled in a medical or dental plan includes a schedule of all applicable bi-weekly payroll deductions, and a description of available options.

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

Very truly yours,

Nancy Wyman
State Comptroller

NW/NM

Attachment:

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