NRECA Employee Benefits Weekly

2017 Group Program SPDs and SMMs Now Available

Posted on Posted in Compliance, Group Benefits

Your 2017 NRECA Group Benefits Program summary plan description (SPD) and summary of material modification documents are now available in the new Group Plan Documents section of the Employee Benefits website. You should have received a Message Center alert directing you to the documents. From the link in your alert, download your documents, review them for accuracy, and then distribute them to participants by March 1, 2017.

SPDs and SMMs for plans with special or exception designs will continue to be released during January and will be posted by January 31.

New SPDs were issued for:

  • Plans that you changed (e.g., eligibility, deductible, out-of-pocket maximum) during annual renewal
  • Medical high-deductible PPO plans for which you elected the embedded deductible feature
  • Non-high-deductible health plans when the pharmacy benefit was mapped to one of the three new 2017 plan structures

SMMs were issued for plans that you confirmed (without making changes) during 2017 annual renewal.

Review checklist

  • Review your SPDs and SMMs to confirm that your cooperative’s plan elections are properly reflected. A list of changes to the 2017 SPDs and SMMs is available on the Employee Benefits website.
  • Participants must receive the SPDs, SMMs, or both for each group benefit plan they are enrolled in during 2017, either via paper or electronically. In addition, COBRA plan participants, retirees, surviving dependents and any children under a qualified medical child support order must also receive their own copy if they do not reside with your employee. Review the guidelines for electronic distribution before selecting a distribution method.

Acknowledge distribution for all plans from the new location online the Employee Benefits website. Go to My Benefits > Co-op Insurance > Group Plan Documents (SPD, SMM, and SBC). Links in your Message Center alert will also take you there.

If you have questions about how to download your co-op’s SPDs, contact the Member Contact Center at 866.673.2299 or contactcenter@nreca.coop.

For all other questions about 2017 SPDs, contact the benefits compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or group.compliance@nreca.coop.

 

Scroll to top