JFS Healthcare & Dental Renewal

AFSCME Local 800 JFS members Alex Pagan-Mejia and Erica Sender met with JFSLA Director of Human Resources and representatives from the health insurance broker OneDigital on April 28, 2022, to discuss our annual healthcare renewal for the next JFSLA fiscal year, effective July 1, 2022.

For both our medical and our dental plans, we were presented with two options: renew our current plan, with an increase in premiums; or switch to a different plan. The full Power Point presentation is here; and we reference certain specific pages in our summary, below.

Voting on a Medical Plan (2 options)

Option 1, Renewal of Current Plan: Our current insurance company, Blue Shield of California, submitted a renewal proposal in which our current plans would stay the same; however monthly premium costs would increase by 9.9%.

  • Maintain office visit co-pays at $20
  • Maintain $500 hospital admission fee
  • Maintain Out of Pocket Maximum (OOPM) for all annual expenses at $2500/year(individual) and $5000/year (family).

See pages 7, 9, and 10 of the document.

To remain with this plan, payroll deductions will increase to:

  • HMO Trio (Narrow): $0
  • HMO (includes UCLA and Cedars): $89.28/pay period
  • PPO: $252.23/pay period
  • PPO (HSA): $89.43/pay period

Option 2, New Plan: The other option would be to end our relationship with Blue Shield of California and enroll with United HealthCare. Under this proposal, employee premium costs will decrease by 7.6%; however, the co-pays for doctor visits, procedures, and prescription drugs will increase in most cases.

  • Primary care visits co-pays will remain the same
  • Specialist office visits will increase to $40
  • $500 hospital admission fee would remain the same
  • OOPM would decrease to $2000/$4000

See pages 8 and 9-11of the document.

With this plan, payroll deductions will be:

  • HMO (Narrow): $0
  • HMO (includes UCLA and Cedars): $0/pay period
  • PPO: $142.62/pay period
  • PPO (HSA): $43.07/pay period

Voting on a Dental Plan (two options)

Option 1, Renewal of Current Plan: Stay with Guardian; premium increases by 4%. See page 14 of the document.

  • HMO:  $17.16/pay period
  • PPO:  $57.40/pay period

Option 2, New Plan: Move to MetLife. $5 office visit remains the same, some basic service costs decrease, some major services slightly increase. Some implant coverage added. See page 15 of the document.

  • HMO:  $15.10/pay period
  • PPO:  $46.47/pay period