CalPERS Announces Health Rate Increases, Open Enrollment
Open Enrollment time is here for CalPERS-covered employees. CalPERS provides and administers a variety of benefit programs and services for public employees, including CSU faculty.
Healthcare providers negotiate rates directly with CalPERS (CFA and other unions are not involved). Two of the biggest HMOs are raising their premiums (Kaiser and Anthem), but this will also change the subsidy level that CalPERS provides. Check here to see how much your rates are changing. CalPERS is also adding health plans to give enrollees more options in the face of increased costs.
“Every year the CalPERS medical providers assess market conditions and make a decision as to whether to raise their premiums or not. Neither CalPERS nor CFA has any statutory authority to tell a private medical provider to not raise their rates,” said CFA retired faculty committee chair Jonathan Karpf.
According to CalPERS, “the primary driver of the premium increases is rising costs due to high medical inflation.”
During Open Enrollment, you can:
- Change your CalPERS health plan
- Add eligible dependents
- Remove dependents
- Cancel your existing CalPERS health coverage
- Enroll in a CalPERS health plan if you don’t currently have coverage
Faculty who want to make changes to their coverage or beneficiaries can contact their campus Human Resources department. If your campus participates in online enrollments, changes can be made through your myCalPERS account instead of submitting a hard copy form to your employer.
For help making changes online look to the resources on the CalPERS open enrollment website. There are also helpful videos. For those not looking to make changes to their coverage, no action is needed.
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