Watch for 2023 Group Program SPDs and SMMs Starting December 20

Your cooperative’s 2023 group summary plan description (SPD) and summary of material modifications (SMM) documents will be released to the Employee Benefits website starting December 20, 2022. The documents are due to participants and beneficiaries no later than March 1, 2023, and to employees you hire during 2023 within 90 days of their hire date.

Between December 20 and early January, watch for one or more Message Center notifications as the 2023 SPDs and SMMs become available for download and distribution. 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.

Before distributing your SPDs and SMMs, review them to ensure they correctly reflect your elections (e.g., eligibility, premium cost-sharing, deductibles, and coinsurance), even if those elections did not change from 2022. Also, ensure that the provisions described in the SPD(s) properly reflect your co-op’s human resources policies and procedures. If they do not, contact the benefits compliance team right away. When you acknowledge distribution, a step will ask you to attest that you’ve performed these reviews.

Visit the BA Guide for a distribution checklist, a list of recipients (along with an explanation of why your co-op gets an SPD or an SMM), and electronic distribution rules. If you choose electronic distribution, you must follow the 2002 rules. Check the COVID-19 Resources link to find out if your co-op can take advantage of temporary electronic delivery rules or other relief.

You can also download the list of 2023 group benefit plan changes to help answer any questions participants may have about changes to the SPDs for 2023.

Finally, acknowledge distributing each document using the Group Plan Documents page of the Employee Benefits website. You can simultaneously acknowledge distributing multiple documents that share the same distribution date. Also complete any older acknowledgements that are still outstanding.

If you have questions about your 2023 documents, call the group compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or email group.compliance@nreca.coop.