[October 4, 2002]

Begins 8:00 am (PST), Friday, November 1
Ends midnight (PST), Saturday, November 30

Health Plan Choices

• Enroll in or opt out of UC-sponsored medical, dental, and vision plans
• Transfer to a different medical or dental Plan
• Add eligible family members

Other Choices

• Enroll in new Health Care Reimbursement Account Program
• Enroll in Dependent Care Reimbursement Account (current DepCare participants must re-enroll to continue)
• Change participation in Tax Savings on Insurance Premiums (TIP) program

Employees eligible for full or mid-level benefits can make Open Enrollment changes through the Open Enrollment Action Line. Transactions must be completed by midnight (PST) on November 30. Core employees must use forms to make their changes, and the forms must be received in their Benefits or Payroll Office by 5:00 p.m. on November 27. You may not make Open Enrollment changes to UC-sponsored plans after these times.

All Open Enrollment changes will be effective January 1, 2003.

New Choices -- Open Enrollment for 2003

Big changes are coming in 2003. If you've never paid much attention to Open Enrollment in the past, this year you owe it to yourself and your family to learn what's happening with UC's medical plans. You have significant new choices.

To start, monthly employee costs are rising for almost all of the medical plans. Even if you do nothing during Open Enrollment, you can expect to see a change in your January paycheck deduction for medical coverage.

The UC Care medical plan is being replaced by a new Blue Cross of California Point-of-Service (POS) plan--Blue Cross PLUS. UC will also offer a Blue Cross of California Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan--Blue Cross PPO.

UC will continue to offer the same choice of California HMO plans (Health Net, Kaiser Permanente, PacifiCare, WHA), and Core, a catastrophic medical plan, with no significant changes to copayments or benefits in 2003. This array of plans--HMO, POS, PPO, and fee-for-service--gives you a range of choices at a range of prices.

New in 2003 is a Health Care Reimbursement Account, which allows employees to set aside pretax dollars to pay for eligible out-of-pocket health care expenses, including copayments, prescription drugs, orthodontia, eyeglasses and more.

In late October, you'll receive a personalized Open Enrollment announcement with 2003 monthly costs, and a comprehensive booklet with details about your options.

At Your Service is your homepage for Open Enrollment, with the latest news on UC's plans, a step-by-step guide to Open Enrollment, publications, and links to useful sites, including Health Pages, Medical Plan Chooser, and insurance carrier websites.

Your best source of information about your medical plan options is always the insurance carrier. Your campus, medical center, or laboratory Benefits Fair is another excellent source of benefits information. It's a great opportunity to talk to plan representatives who will be on hand to answer your questions.

• The information presented in these news archive articles may no longer be current. Please note the date when the article was first published.