State cuts force May 1 benefit changes

UNT employees will see changes to their health insurance benefits effective May 1.

The state's Employee Retirement System notified the university in March that reductions to the ERS budget made cuts to benefits necessary. The ERS board of trustees was expected to adopt the changes April 16, and additional changes may be made effective Sept. 1.

HealthSelect Plus insurance change

• HealthSelect Plus will be eliminated. Participants will automatically be placed into the HealthSelect program. Visit www.bcbstx.com/hs2002 to learn more about HealthSelect.

HealthSelect insurance changes

• Primary care physician co-payments will increase from $15 to $20
• Specialist co-payments will increase from $15 to $30
• New hospital co-payments will be $100 per day, up to $500 per hospital stay
• New outpatient procedure co-payments will be $100. Outpatient procedures are defined as care that is ordered by a doctor and provided in a hospital, with a stay of less than 24 hours.

Coinsurance changes

• Network costs will increase from 90 percent/10 percent to 80 percent/20 percent (the maximum remains at $500 per calendar year per person)
• Out-of-the-network-area costs will increase from 80 percent/20 percent to 70 percent/30 percent (the maximum remains at $800 per calendar year per person)
• Non-network costs will increase from 70 percent/30 percent to 60 percent/40 percent (the maximum remains at $1,500 per calendar year per person)

Prescription drug changes

• Generic drugs will increase from $5 to $10
• Preferred drugs will increase from $20 to $25
• Non-preferred drugs will increase from $35 to $40
• If a generic drug is available, members will be required to accept it rather than the name-brand drug, or choose a non-generic medication and pay the cost difference.
• Mail order will be mandatory for refills on all maintenance medications. The original prescription plus one refill can be purchased through a pharmacy; remaining refills must be filled through the mail order program. Visit www.medcohealth.com to learn more about the mail order prescription plan.
• Each 30-day supply of prescription medications will require a co-payment. Members will no longer be able to receive three months of medications for two co-payments through mail order. Employees can still order a three-month supply, but they will be required to pay the cost of three co-pays.

Other featured articles in this issue

• Judy Shepard speaks about violence
• Ireland's former head of state to speak at UNT
• Hurleys honored at UNT Alumni Awards Banquet
• Spring means keeping an eye on the sky
• UNT leads Texas in number of Goldwater scholarship winners
• Staff Council gets campus development report
• New voice mail system to provide users with new and improved services
• UNT expert explains when, how parents should talk to their children about war

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