Open Enrollment Information Beginning September 3rd, 2024!

 

This year's Open Enrollment period for electing employee benefits begins September 3rd and ends December 18, 2024. All new benefit enrollments, changes, or cancellations are effective January 1, 2025.

 

Meetings with insurance agents will be conducted in-person at your school! Pay attention below to the specific timeline of when you can sign up for, cancel, or edit specific benefit options. Do your homework by going to the benefits information tab on our HR website to explore all your benefit options, as representatives with competing policies may not come to your school during the same month. If you aren’t sure which benefits you already have through RCSD and are paying for each month, you can access your deductions through the employee portal.

 

The first wave of insurance agents are scheduled to be at your locations between September 3rd and September 30th. I have attached a PDF version of the schedule where you can locate your school to find the dates and times. It is not required to see them but it is strongly suggested just to check in on your benefits and see if any updates need to be made - for example, dropping overage dependent children. Or adding young children that it may be time for their first dental or eye doctor visit!

September:

Benefits agents who will be at your school to meet with you: 

Superior Vision Edna Jackson Tharp 601-927-1005	Bay Bridge Cancer Kay Winstead 601-956-3737
Colonial Life offers Dental/Vision Rider, Critical Illness, Leaders Life Nancy Hollingsworth 601-862-7818 Stacey Gaspard 601-842-0566 Lisa Lee 601-951-7949	Legal Shield offers Identity Theft and Legal services To add/change please contact directly: Teresa Burgess 601-954-1288 teresa.burgess5@gmail.com

 

*All products you will hear about in September (except for Legal Shield) are pre-taxed deductions.

 

October:

October: The month of October is the time to make changes or enroll with the Blue Cross State Health Insurance plan which includes your CVS Caremark prescription plan. Changes made with Blue Cross have a January 1, 2025 effective date. You will receive an email with more information on this at the end of September. 

Note: I haven't received notice yet of the rate increase. This is the existing rate sheet that expires December 31, 2024. A new rate sheet will be provided if/when it becomes available.

 

November/December: 

Benefit agents who will visit your school include: American Fidelity products are added or changed in November and December, along with any employee changes with any benefit changes you make at all, including those you may want to make through your Section 125/Cafeteria Plan/FSA Flexible Spending Account (opportunity to set aside pre-tax income monthly for daycare and healthcare expenses). The American Fidelity products listed below are available for comparison shopping on the HR website benefits page.

• Accident

• Cancer

• Critical Illness

• Hospital Gap

• Long-term and Short-term Disability

• Section 125/Cafeteria Plan/FSA Flexible Spending Account for eligible pre-taxed daycare and medical expenses

Everyone will sign off by the end of December to confirm any changes or to acknowledge that no changes have been elected. If you do not wish to add, drop, or change anything with any of the benefits offered, we still encourage you to meet with the agents to hear about what all is available to you. If you don’t make any changes, you will still need to meet with American Fidelity later in the fall to sign off that you are not adding, dropping, or making any benefit changes. 

How do I make changes? 

*If you are canceling one policy and taking a new policy of the same type product, you must meet with the policy agent to cancel the one and then with the other policy agent to add the new one.

Ex: If you currently have the Colonial Life Dental with the Vision add-on rider, and you wish to keep the dental, but cancel the vision part of the plan, you must meet with a Colonial Life Agent at your school to drop the vision rider. Then you must also meet with the Superior Vision Agent to enroll in the Superior Vision plan. Or the other way around, if you have the Superior Vision Plan and wish to add the add-on vision rider with Colonial Life, you will use the same procedures.

 

Optional Retirement Savings Options (enroll anytime)
Employees can enroll in these plans at any time during the year! We are working on getting representatives from MS Deferred Comp and Corebridge Financial scheduled. If this is something you are ready for now, explore more about these Deferred Comp and VALIC choices here.

 

Help with Student Loans (Reach out to Kristi Garrard - available to sign up anytime)