More than 500 govt employees sign up for GHI program

Some 500 government employees have signed up for the government’s group health insurance program in the first two days of the reenrollment period.

The NMI Retirement Fund started accepting requests for reenrollment or coverage change since Monday, May 15, 2006. The deadline is June 15, 2006.

Dolores S. Moore, director of the Group Health and Life Insurance Trust Fund, said government employees needed to reenroll with the program because new premium rates and benefits coverage would become effective on July 1, 2006.

About 500 of the over 4,000 government employees have already re-enrolled, she reported.

Moore also said that the increased premiums did not have anything to do with the Retirement Fund’s decision to hire a new third-party administrator for the group health insurance program.

Aetna Global Benefits will take over from Hawaii Pacific Medical Referral on the same that the new contribution rates would take effect.

“The Fund believes that it’s the right time to increase premium rates to make them at par with the cost of medical services. We’ve been suffering shortfalls because medical bills are a lot more than what we’re getting in premiums,” Moore said.

The total bi-weekly premium will increase from $53.52 to $70 for a single retiree and from $49.41 to $65 for a single active member.

Couple members’ semi-monthly premium will be up from $96.86 to $130 for retirees and from $89.41 to $115 for active members.

Family enrollees’ total semi-monthly premium will increase from $141.21 to $190 for retirees and from $129.42 to $180 for active members.

The government’s percentage share in the contribution will decrease for single and couple members, but it will increase for family members.

For instance, the government used to pay 23.67 percent of the premium for single and couple members. This will be reduced to 19-21 percent when the new program takes effect.

But while the government used to cover about 24 percent of the contribution for family members, it will be paying up to 26.6 percent by July 1.

Moore also said that the new program was simpler. It offers one coverage option only, rather than two, and three enrollment categories, rather than four.

In related news, Aetna made a presentation on its services for Legislative Bureau employees yesterday afternoon.

A team from Aetna, led by account manager Jodi A. Bourg, has made similar presentations for at least four other agencies and will do so for other government offices until the end of next week.