Group SPD Distribution Resources and Reminders

On January 8, your cooperative’s 2020 Group Benefits Program summary plan description (SPD) and summary of material modifications (SMM) documents were made available on the Employee Benefits website for you to download and distribute. Remember to give these notices to existing plan participants no later than March 1, 2020.

Follow these tips for easier distribution:

• Download the list of 2020 SPD and SMM updates to help answer questions about this year’s changes.
• Use the proposal ID to track each plan from the Benefit Plan Rating and Renewal feature of the NRECA Employee Benefits website through the distribution and acknowledgement process. A unique proposal ID is assigned to each proposal you submit; the ID then appears on your Message Center notification, on your SPDs and on the distribution acknowledgement form. Match the ID at each step to be sure you’re distributing and acknowledging the right documents.
• Verify that the provisions you chose during annual renewal are correctly reflected in each SPD before distributing it.
• Review the electronic distribution rules, to see if you can use an electronic method to deliver your documents to plan participants.
• Give the SPDs and SMMs to these covered individuals no later than March 1: active and disabled employees; retirees; directors and retained attorneys; COBRA qualified beneficiaries; dependents of deceased employees or retirees who continue to be covered; and children covered under a qualified medical child support order.
• Give copies of the SPDs and SMMs to new employees within 90 days after the date they first become covered under the plan.

During distribution and acknowledgement:

• If you have unacknowledged SPDs or SMMs from prior years, please acknowledge those before acknowledging any 2020 documents.  
• If you have no enrolled participants in a plan: (1) report zero as the number of recipients; (2) enter the date you’re completing the acknowledgement as the distribution date; (3) choose “Other” as the distribution method; and (4) type a message stating that no plan participants were enrolled as of the effective date.
• Keep a printed copy of the distribution acknowledgement confirmation page in your plan files.

If you have questions as you review and distribute your SPDs and SMMs, contact the group compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or email us at group.compliance@nreca.coop.