State Health Plan Updates

The State Health Plan (SHP) Board of Trustees recently held its quarterly Board and a number of the issues discussed will directly impact educators and their families who are SHP participants.
 Open enrollment planning is underway. Mailings to inform all participants of the dates are in process, and the Open Enrollment Support Center will have extended hours during open enrollment. There will also be virtual sessions held this year to ease call wait times. In addition, there will be special sessions for retirees who are transitioning from non-Medicare eligibility to Medicare eligibility to ensure a smooth transition without any potential loss of benefits temporarily. 
 There was also discussion about how the Senate budget, and ultimately the final state budget, would impact SHP. The Senate budget repays the SHP for the medical cost

overage incurred for covering all employee COVID-19 related medical costs during the 2020 pandemic. That bill came to more than $172,712,326 through June 30.
 Also of note, the COVID-19 medical-related coverage continued through June 30, 2021, and expired July 1, 2021. This pertains to the state covering all employee COVID-19 related medical costs. The plan will still pay for COVID-19 claims, but employees will now pay all employee-related medical expenses (deductibles must be met, co-pays, etc.). During the pandemic, the SHP paid 100 percent of all employee costs without having to meet deductibles.
 The Senate budget also proposes repaying the SHP the budget cuts made to the Plan in the 2020 mini budgets and proposes $300 million dollars to pay toward the retiree healthcare liability.