September 28, 2021
Health Insurance Open Enrollment and Plan Year 2022 Changes
Open enrollment for calendar year 2022 benefits will occur between October 1, and October 31. Go to the State Employee, 2022 Open Enrollment page for more information. The 2022 Health Benefits Enrollment Guide for Plan Year 2022 can be found here.
During open enrollment, all benefits-eligible faculty and staff must sign into their Membership Administration Portal to complete their enrollments. As a reminder, the state of Kansas requires you, as a state employee, to make a health care plan election, even if you do not intend to make changes to your plan or coverage level. If you fail to go in and make your health insurance choice, the system will default you to plan N with an HSA.
The state has announced several changes to the overall benefits packages which you should consider prior to finalizing your elections. Those include:
- Plan Q will no longer be offered in 2022. Employees currently enrolled in Plan Q will need to select one of the other four plan options.
- Employee premiums for health care insurance rates for employee/spouse and employee/family coverage are reducing 2%. Employee premiums for health care insurance rates for employee only and employee/children coverage will remain unchanged.
- Several plans will have reduced copays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums. Plan A primary care office visit copays will reduce from $40 to $30. The Plan A deductibles are decreasing to $900/individual; $1,800/family in 2022. Plan A out-of-pocket maximums are also reducing to $5,250/individual; $10,500/family. Plan C out-of-pocket maximums are reducing to $4,500/individual; $9,000/family.
- Across all plans, prescription drug coinsurance is reducing for preferred brand-name drugs from 40% to 35%, and from 65% to 60% for non-preferred brand-name drugs.
- Dental rates are increasing slightly by 3.3%.
- There is a new vision plan vendor for 2022. The State Employee Health Plan has contracted with Avesis to provide voluntary vision insurance. Avesis will be offering the same enhanced, and basic option vision plans as the previous provider. Employees enrolled in the current vision plan will need to make an election to enroll in the new vision plan, or coverage will not be extended into 2022. Additional details regarding Avesis benefits are available on the State Employee Health Plan webpage.
- There is a new Health Savings Account/Health Reimbursement Account administration vendor for 2022. MetLife will be the administrator for the HSAs and HRAs. All contributions — employee and employer — in 2022 will be made to MetLife accounts. Further information about existing NueSynergy accounts, and the transfer of funds will be made prior to January 2022. Employees will have the choice of keeping their existing account with NueSynergy, or rolling the balance to the new MetLife account. Additional information regarding this change is available on the State Employee Health Plan webpage. Please note NueSynergy will continue to administer Flexible Spending Accounts or FSAs.
At any time you have questions about your benefits, or any other HR matter, contact me at marygatza@ksu.edu; or call my office number 785-532-3076.