Watch for October 1 Medical Plan SMMs – NRECA Employee Benefits Weekly

If your cooperative offers the NRECA Medical Plan, you will receive a Message Center notification on September 28 directing you to the quarterly medical plan summary of material modifications (SMM) that takes effect on October 1, 2023.

Give the SMM to current plan participants and acknowledge distribution before December 1, 2023. Also, give the SMM to new plan participants along with the medical plan summary plan description (SPD). 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.

This SMM reflects changes made by CVS Caremark^®, NRECA’s pharmacy benefit manager, to prescription drug coverage under the NRECA Medical Plan. These changes are effective October 1, 2023 and were described in the August 23, 2023 issue of NRECA Employee Benefits Weekly.

Distribution instructions
Enter your co-op’s name and REA/subgroup number on the SMM before distributing it to employees. Also, review the standing distribution guidelines on the BA Guide to find instructions for acceptable distribution methods. As the final step of your distribution process, please acknowledge distributing your SMMs right away.

Participants with questions about prescription drug coverage or about these changes can call CVS Caremark Customer Care at 888.796.7322. If you have questions about downloading or accessing your SMMs, call the Member Contact Center at 866.673.2299 or email contactcenter@nreca.coop.

For all other SMM questions, call the benefits compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or email group.compliance@nreca.coop.