2022 Group Program SPDs and SMMs Available Starting December 17

Your cooperative’s 2022 summary plan description (SPD) and summary of material modifications (SMM) documents will be available for download and distribution to plan participants starting December 17, 2021. The documents are due to participants and beneficiaries no later than March 1, 2022. Also give them to employees you hire during 2021 within 90 days of their hire date.

Starting December 17, benefits administrators will receive one or more Message Center notifications as 2022 SPDs and SMMs are released. If you built a new plan or made changes to an existing plan during annual renewal, you will receive an SPD for that plan. If you confirmed an existing plan without making changes, you will receive an SMM for that plan.

After downloading them, first review your documents to ensure they correctly reflect the elections you made (e.g., eligibility, premium cost-sharing, deductible amounts and coinsurance), even if those elections did not change from 2021. Also, ensure that the provisions described in the SPD(s) properly reflect your co-op’s human resources policies and procedures. Do this before distributing the SPDs and SMMs. If the documents do not match the provisions you elected, contact the benefits compliance team right away. When you acknowledge distribution, a new step will ask you to attest that you’ve performed these reviews.

Visit the BA Guide to find a full distribution checklist, guidelines for who must receive SPDs, and electronic distribution rules. If you choose electronic distribution, you must follow the 2002 rules. If your co-op’s business operations have been negatively impacted by the pandemic, check the COVID-19 benefit program updates page to find out if your co-op can use certain temporary electronic delivery methods.

You can also download and review the list of 2022 group benefit plan changes so that you can answer any questions participants may have about changes to the plans during 2021.

Finally, acknowledge distributing each SPD. Do this right after distributing your documents to participants. Use the Message Center alert link or go directly to the Group Plan Documents page on the Employee Benefits website. You can simultaneously acknowledge distribution for multiple documents that you provided to participants on the same date. Before acknowledging distribution for 2022 documents, please complete any older acknowledgements that are still outstanding.

If you have questions about your SPDs, call the group compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or email group.compliance@nreca.coop.