Medical Plan SMMs Available October 1

If your cooperative offers one of the NRECA Medical Plans, within the next week you will receive a Message Center notification directing you to a new summary of material modifications (SMM) for your plan. Deliver the SMM to current plan participants and acknowledge distribution by November 30, 2018.

Also, give the SMM to new plan participants at the same time you provide the medical summary plan description (SPD).

Distribution Instructions
On October 1, the SMM will be available in your document library on the Employee Benefits website. Before distributing it to employees, you must enter your co-op’s name, RUS and subgroup number and employer tax identification number.

Department of Labor regulations allow employers to give out SMMs electronically (usually via email) only to certain employees who can access the documents through computers that are an integral part of their work duties. Participants who do not meet these criteria (for example, a line worker or meter readers who may not have a computer or laptop) must receive paper copies. Frequently asked questions and full details about how to distribute these SMMs, who must receive them and acceptable distribution methods is available on the Employee Benefits website.

SMM Contents
This SMM contains changes to the Performance Drug List, Exclusion List, Preventive Drug List and Quantity Limits List that were made by CVS Caremark (the plan’s pharmacy benefit manager) and are effective October 1, 2018. Certain products were added and deleted from the lists and others were moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 within the formulary, which may affect the copay or coinsurance amount. These changes were announced in the August 29, 2018 I&FS Weekly.

Questions
Participants wanting to view updated lists can be directed to the Prescription Drug page on the NRECA Employee Benefits website. There, they can view the most current version of the Performance Drug List, request mail service (for the most affordable prescriptions) and access drug prices and information. The lists on the Employee Benefits website will reflect these changes starting October 1, 2018.

If you or your employees have questions about prescription drug coverage or these changes, call CVS Caremark Customer Care at 888.796.7322.

If you have questions about downloading and distributing this SMM, call the Member Contact Center at 866.673.2299 or contactcenter@nreca.coop. For all other questions about this SMM, call the benefits compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or at group.compliance@nreca.coop.