Medical plan choices unchanged; rates increase slightly

Medical
plan choices unchanged; rates increase slightly

BY MARGOT DIMOND
Rice News staff

Rice medical
plans will not change this year. The university will stay
in the Aetna physician and hospital network, with its 7,500
primary-care physicians and specialists in the Houston area,
and because of a recently reached agreement between the
insurance company and Kelsey-Seybold, that group will remain
in the network. (Read more about this below.)

That’s the
word from the Rice human resources department, which has
just released information on its benefits plans for the
coming year.

Employee health
insurance premiums will increase by 6 percent — considerably
less than the average increase of 10 to 20 percent other
Houston businesses are seeing.

There will be
no increase in co-pays or deductibles, and Rice’s contribution
will also increase 6 percent. However, the percentage of
the premium that Rice pays will remain the same — about
80 percent of the employee-only health premium and about
60 percent of the family premium.

“The low
increase recognizes that the work the Benefit Committee
did last year to restructure the benefit plans is working,”
said Mary Cronin, associate vice president for human resources.
“Now that we are totally self-insured, the major increases
to the cost of the health plans depend on the extent to
which they are used and the level of health care inflation.”

Rates will not
increase for life insurance and dental plans — the
latter due to the two-year guaranteed rate negotiated last
year. In addition, employees who purchase long-term disability
insurance will see a very slight decrease to their premiums.

There will be
meetings for Rice employees April 6, 7 and 8 to answer any
questions about the benefit plans. The meetings will take
place at noon in the Kyle Morrow Room of Fondren Library.

An evening meeting
is planned for family members Monday, April 5, from 6 to
8 p.m. in the Anderson Family Commons of the Jesse H. Jones
Graduate School of Management building.

Online open enrollment
begins April 9

Online open enrollment
begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday, April 9, and ends at 11:59
p.m. Thursday, April 29.

Your Rice benefits
packet will include the Web address for enrollment, <http://esther.rice.edu>,
your Rice ID number and your personal identification number
(PIN).

To enroll, go
to the Web site and enter your ID and PIN number. You will
go through a series of screens to make the same types of
choices you have made in previous years.

At the end, you
will be able to calculate the costs of your benefits, get
an estimate of the total changes in your costs and approve
the submission of your selections. You will receive an e-mail
confirming your choices, and you are done.

If you have chosen
new benefits that require evidence of insurability or beneficiary
elections or if you have chosen long-term care insurance,
you will have to fill out forms (available online or at
Allen Center, Room 434) since those options do not lend
themselves to automated selections.

The Benefits
Team will be available to answer questions in person, on
the benefits hotline (713-348-2400) and via e-mail (<carrase@rice.edu>,
<gloobry@rice.edu>
or <britt@rice.edu>)
each day of open enrollment from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from
6 to 9 p.m. April 26-29. Computer labs will be available
to Rice faculty and staff, with technical support and benefits
information. See your benefits packet for dates, times and
locations.

Employees who
have no changes to make in their benefit accounts and have
no medical or dependent care spending accounts need not
enroll. Their benefit selections will automatically roll
over on July 1 and remain the same.