Current Benefits and Rates
NEW Municipal Health Reform Legislation of 2011
Overview:
• Chapter 32B has new Sections 21-23 which remove the requirement to follow the Ch. 150E bargaining process and/or the Ch. 32B, Section 19 process, if adopted, for making certain benefit changes. The allowed benefit changes are those that bring the plan to the co-pay and deductible levels of the GIC’s “Benchmark Plan”. There’s an active employee benchmark plan and a Medicare benchmark plan. The legislation also allows the governmental unit to transfer subscribers to the GIC without following the requirements of Section 19(e).
• Sections 18 and 18A, which were local option sections, have been replaced with a
New Section 18A which is mandatory. All governmental units are now required to transfer Medicare eligible retirees and their dependents out of “active” plans and into Medicare supplement plans or Medicare Advantage plans. (To apply for Medicare benefits online please go to: Medicare Online
Application)
• Joint Purchase Groups now have the authority to make plan design changes to the level of the GIC’s “Benchmark Plan”; however, the participating governmental units are then required to follow the process of Ch. 32B, Section 21 (a local option expedited coalition-type bargaining process with arbitration) to adopt those new plan design changes.
• There’s a new process for joining the GIC. In order to make a proposal to join the GIC, the governmental unit must demonstrate that it can save at least 5% more by joining the GIC than by making the plan design changes allowed under Ch. 32B, Sections 21 and 22. The employer must following the process described in Section 21.
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