Distribute Group SBCs by November 1
The November 1, 2018 deadline to give 2019 summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) documents to plan participants and beneficiaries is fast approaching. SBCs were released in September for distribution either with your annual enrollment materials or by November 1, if earlier.
If you haven’t yet distributed these notices, take time to do that now. Find your SBCs by following the link in your original Message Center notification, or by going directly to the Group Plan Documents page of the Employee Benefits website. Distribution instructions are also available online, including detailed requirements for distributing the documents electronically. Review the requirements first to see if your participants qualify to receive required notices electronically.
After you’ve distributed the SBCs, fill out the acknowledgment form on the Employee Benefits website. You can acknowledge distributing SBCs for multiple plans in one step.
The SBC is a required notice for your cooperative’s NRECA medical plans and certain NRECA dental and vision plans. It is designed to help plan participants compare their group benefit plan coverage options. Your co-op should have received an SBC for:
- All medical plans,
- Stand-alone wellness plans,
- NRECA dental and vision plans where your co-op pays 100% of the premium (no SBCs were distributed for the VSP vision plan); and
- If your co-op offers them, the health flexible spending accounts (except when your co-op does not contribute to the FSA, provides a dollar-for-dollar match or contributes no more than $500) and health reimbursement arrangements. For these plans, you may create your own SBCs using the model notices linked above.
If you have any questions about distributing your SBCs, contact the benefits compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or at group.compliance@nreca.coop.