All right, we're gonna go ahead and get started.

Thanks, everyone who's joining in the room and everyone online.

Um this conversation today is going to be going over the 2026 uh benefits from the City of Marietta.

Uh this is going to be hopefully conversational.

So if anyone has a question, please don't hesitate to put up your hand.

Uh typically the way that works is if you have a question, someone else in the room mathematically has thought about it or is thinking about it.

So there are no silly questions.

Um open enrollment is one of those times where we get we kind of think about benefits once a year.

So this is that time to get any of those questions that you had.

Um and if there's anything uh personal that you'd like to talk with me afterwards, um happy to do that in a more private setting.

We also have some enrollers that can um physically help you with the the technical aspect of signing up.

Um the uh the gist of the the conversation today, uh most of the benefits are staying the same.

There's a few improvements that we'll go over the same enrollment site to use to sign up for benefits.

Um the enrollment period is from yesterday until the end of October.

Um so you've got a couple weeks to make any decisions.

Uh most of your current elections will be carried over.

So it's still best practice to go into the benefits Swift.

You'll see the the act um the shorthand version called B Swift.

Uh it's still a best practice to go in there and make sure that you have signed up for everything that you want, make sure that your beneficiaries are updated.

If you've moved recently, it's a good exercise to go in there and change your address so that you're uh ensuring that you're getting all of your EOBs and any sort of benefits-related uh materials sent to the correct uh location as well, too.

Um but just to reiterate open enrollment period is from yesterday until the end of October.

We've got enrollment assistance, the schedule for the enrollers uh you can see on the screen today.

There is also a app that you can use to sign up for appointments so that you don't have to wait and you can just walk right into to having a discussion with someone that can help you uh uh review your current benefits and make any changes that you'd like to for 2026.

Um that's most of the housekeeping.

Um so getting into the meat and potatoes, uh the main the main thing that we wanted to kind of really highlight the chain there's gonna be no changes from your medical pharmacy and dental benefits.

That's from a plan design perspective, and we were actually able to um hold the rates consistently.

So there's no rate increases on any of those lines of coverage, which is great.

Um the vision plans are also moving to anthems.

So now we have the medical, dental, and vision all with the same carrier, which I think you'll notice uh will make the employer portal process better.

You don't have to remember multiple systems to get into now.

So if you ever need an EOB for uh your medical dental or vision, you can all you can get all that from the same place, which is nice.

Uh the vision plan is actually uh enhancement too.

I'm not for those uh that need glasses or contacts, you'll notice that the frame allowance for the vision plans has been increased for both the base and buy up plan uh pretty significantly uh along with a couple other uh enhancements that we'll talk about as well.

The life and disability plans, uh those are the same exact plan designs as you're used to seeing.

Um the difference, the only difference is that the administration of those, the the carrier for those plans is now Lincoln.

Um we did that to prevent uh some rate increases as well.

And then the axe the AFLAC, the accident and critical illness plans.

We're gonna go into the details for all these um lines of coverage if you have any specific questions on those, but just to reiterate the AFLAC accident and critical illness plans are the same as well as the legal plan.

And then there's some uh just some updates to the maximums that you're allowed to contribute to the uh regular FSA as well as the dependent care FSA.

So, any questions on that before I keep moving?

Okay, great.

I love having this clicker.

And it's got a laser point on it too.

Oh, I'm Tom, sorry about that.

I'm from NFP, so we work with Keisha and Sherry on the uh not only the acquisition, so we go to market and try to make sure that we're getting the the best rates, but um also the longer term strategy, things around wellness and how to ensure that everyone's getting all the information that need to make um you know healthy decisions in their life.

But I'm Tom, nice to meet you all.

Yes.

Oh shoot.

Streaming in the microphone for the stream here.

So for Callie's microphone, can we have a little bit of microphone feedback?

We're having a little bit of microphone feedback.

Sorry about that.

Hopefully you all can hear me now.

So to keep moving, when it comes to the what responsibilities you may have, uh again, kind of like I was saying, it's just best practice, go into the portal, make sure you're signed up for the coverages that you are expecting to be signed up for, um, especially if you're currently enrolled, and then look and see if there's any changes that you'd like to make.

If you've had um, you know, a life change, uh, like getting married or having a child, that's a it's a great time to do that.

So what I'd what I'd like for each of you to commit to is reading the open enrollment materials, just making sure that you're signed up for what you'd like to along with all your personal information, like your address, date of birth, all that stuff, just checking to make sure that's right.

And then there's three different ways you can enroll.

You can go through the B SWIF system like I've been talking about.

You can meet with one of our counselors or enrollment uh coordinators that are here today, and then you can also call the NFP Service Center, and you can do that up until October 31st if you don't have time today.

Um, but there's someone that you can call that can also walk you through the enrollment process and answer any questions that you have.

But that's a hard deadline just to remember, uh end of the day on Friday, October 31st is the last day that you can make changes or sign up for coverages.

All of these coverages will be going into effect um January 1st, 2026.

Uh also another great practice is um once January does come around, just make sure to review your first paycheck and make sure that the deductions uh that are coming out of your paycheck are what you're expecting.

Okay, and like I just said, so all of these uh changes or elections that you would be making today are gonna go into effect January 1st.

That's when everyone's medical plan deductible starts over as well, too.

So just remember all your accumulators if you do, especially if you have hit your deductible already in the year, it's a great idea to go to the doctor, make sure you're getting all of the um preventive services for sure.

Any sort of uh medical work that you need done, it's a good idea to get that done before the plan year because your deductible and out-of-pocket maxims will start over.

Um these elections that you're making right now, you can add uh any dependents.

There'll be a couple of different um identity identification um supporting documents that you'll need to submit.

Uh but just remember this is the only time that you can make changes to your 2026 benefits until next year's open enrollment period, unless you have a qualifying life event, which uh it can be defined as marriage divorce, all the things that you would expect um life life changes uh if you uh let's say your spouse is on a different plan and that person loses eligibility.

There's a number of different ways that uh it would trigger a qualifying life event, but those life events are the only reasons why you can make a change outside of this open enrollment period for all of 2026.

So that's what I was trying to stress is now is the time to make those choices.

So um especially if you have any questions that are holding you back from making the decision, please uh come talk to me or the enrollers after the the meeting.

Okay.

And uh there is a timeline for those qualifying life events you have to do within 30 days.

Um it's the same enrollment system that we uh have used in the past.

It's just uh been updated a little bit.

Um the feel will still be pretty much the same.

Your username is going to be the first letter of your name and then your last name uh followed by the year of your birth, and your passwords have been reset, so it may prompt you to um just re-enter a password, but uh just first initial last name, data birth should should get you in there, no problem.

Um I touched on it earlier, but your current elections are gonna roll over.

It's we're just mapping you to the same plans.

Um, but it's still good to just make sure, especially since we had a carrier change, it's just good to make sure that um the B SWIF system is reflecting that uh coverage that you want to uh be enrolled in for January 1st.

Uh here's a glimpse of what the new system looks like.

It's you know, again, like I said, kind of the same system.

It's just got a fr uh rebrand to it.

But you'll you'll go through the process of uh verifying that all the coverage that you're signed up for.

You will have the opportunity to add any dependents.

Um when you're shopping through each line of coverage, you can click into it and it'll show you what the cost is per pay period coming out of your check.

So you have all the information that you need to um make a decision.

Then once you you go through the entire process, make sure you have your beneficiaries set for the life insurance especially.

You'll click through the process and eventually you'll come to this last screen and you'll click complete enrollments.

Um you'll also have an at the station that you agree that you have finished with your enrollment.

The last the last kind of best practice that I would encourage you guys to do is to either print or PDF your confirmation statement, just so you have that uh handy so you know what your payroll deductions are going to look like uh starting January.

Any questions on that?

Okay, now we're gonna get into the um details of the plans.

We're gonna start with medical, go through um the life and disability, and then uh round out with some of the excuse me, additional products.

Okay, so same exact plan design as last year, same premiums, no really changes.

Um just at a high level, just to make sure that everyone the the way that we consume healthcare in America is interesting.

The we pay a premium, and that gets us you know the ability to have access to the doctors that are in the anthem network.

Now, when you go to an anthem doctor that's in network, they've agreed to charge you all less money than they would charge to someone who walked in off the street without having that anthem insurance.

So it's imperative on you all to make sure that you are before you go get service, make sure that that person is in the Anthem network.

Anthem is the largest network in Georgia.

So they have you know the most providers that you can see, but there's still some people that do not participate in the network.

Maybe they don't need um you know to take insurance.

A lot of the time that's gonna be very cosmetic in nature.

Uh most doctors are going to be, especially in the state of Georgia, are gonna be in the Anthem uh network, but it's it's important to check before you go because all of your deductible and out-of-pocket numbers are it's a completely separate bucket if you go out of network.

So you're not getting any credit towards your deductible if you go to an out-of-network doctor.

Um but just to reiterate what the plan design is there's a thousand dollar deductible.

Um before you hit your deductible, you can uh incur co-pays at your primary care physician or specialist, that's 35 and 40 bucks.

But outside of the co-pays that you'd be paying, all of that all of that money that you're spending is accruing towards your deductible and out-of-pocket maximums.

Once you hit your deductible, you're gonna pay 20% up until you hit your out-of-pocket maximum.

So once you hit that thousand dollars, if you get a you know, another one thousand dollar bill, you're gonna pay two hundred dollars of that up until you hit your ma your maximum out of pocket.

Um there's co-pays for hospital stays as well, too, which is nice.

And then you'll see um you'll see that there's also co-pays for pharmacy, just depending on which tier of your medication.

There's there's generic, and then it gets a little bit more expensive as it goes to brand, and then obviously specialty is going to be a certain percentage of the cost of the medication.

Uh I did want to point out that the you can see at the very bottom last line, the urgent care co-pay is only 75 bucks.

Whereas if you go to the emergency room, you're gonna pay 200 plus 20% of any sort of emergency room costs.

So uh one of the best ways to save money as a you know, as a consumer of healthcare is to make sure that for those reasons that you can't if you can go to an urgent care, do that.

They're gonna send you to an emergency room, you know, if it's something that they can't handle.

And obviously, if it's an emergency, go to the emergency room.

But um frequently people will go to the emergency room just out of convenience, and that is a surefire way to pay.

I think they say an emergency room is about eight times more expensive than you know, regular service, just due to the nature of it being an emergency and and being understaffed and having high overhead and things like that.

So, any questions on the medical plan before we move on.

Um this is a there's a PPO plan for um some there's there's not a there's not a lot of people.

This is for people that um work for the city a long time ago.

But if there's anyone that this is applicable to, uh in essence, the same type of plan design, it's just different um slightly different deductibles, a little bit higher.

The uh out-of-pocket maximum is a little different, but in essence, it's the same, same general, same general deal.

Um, if anyone is in this plan, this is a closed group, but if anyone's on this plan, please uh don't hesitate to ask any questions.

But I'm gonna move on just because it is a closed group.

Uh the prescription plans are staying the same.

It's still with express uh still with express scripts.

Um you can see the different co-pays based on the different tiers of drugs.

And um the specialty drug tier you can see is not a copay, it's it's a percentage.

That's what I was getting at.

It's a percentage of the cost of the medication.

Um that's just that's standard, that's the way that specialty drugs.

So specialty drugs will be things like injectables like Humera or any sort of like cancer drugs.

The very expensive drugs are gonna be typically classified as specialty drugs.

So just be beware of that any sort of specialty drugs you're taking, you're gonna pay a percentage of that total cost up until you hit your um your deductible and maximum out of pocket.

Um there's also um you also have the ability to get a lot of these medications filled on a three-month supply.

Um and they'll they'll send that to your home.

So uh make sure you ask your doctor if you're eligible, especially if you're taking a maintenance medication, it's gonna be cheaper and uh more efficient to have some of those mailed mailed to your home.

Okay.

A little bit more detail on the on the mail order program.

Um this is not changing from from last year, so uh same same way you would kind of go about it, you would go to express scripts.com and then um work with your doctor to make sure that you're getting that home home home mail order option if that is something that is applicable for the medication that you're taking.

Um there's gonna be this is just a glimpse, the medical deductions are not changing.

Um so whatever you have been paying is what you will still pay.

All this information, I encourage everyone if you really want to get into the weeds on it, uh, go to the new benefit resource center.

It's gonna have um all of the details for it's gonna have all the you know detailed benefit summaries for each line of coverage along with all the pricing information too.

If you if you um want to take a look at that.

Uh one thing to note though, especially you know, when you're when you're trying to figure out how to unfortunately the cost of health care is very expensive uh expensive in America, so um I would encourage you if especially if you have dependents to consider the flexible spending account.

In essence, we know that we're going to have health expenses throughout the year, so the flexible spending account or FSA, which I'm sure you've heard of, is just a way to allow you to avoid paying taxes for a qualified medical expenses is the easiest way to think about that.

You're you're allocating a certain amount of money that you will be using for medical dental envision expenses.

Um, but you're taking that out of your paycheck pre-tax.

So saves you, I would look at it as a 20 to 30% off coupon for your uh medical dental envision expenses.

The amount of that has increased um for 2026.

It's up to $3300 that you can contribute there.

Um the dependent care FSA has also increased uh to $7,500, which you know if you have kids, you know that how expensive daycare can be, so that um is not a you know that's not gonna cover you for for many months, but it will uh again help you to at least pay for some of the uh adult or child um dependent care expenses uh before paying any taxes on it.

Uh also something to note on the medical spending account, you can roll over.

It's not um the city is generous in the sense that you know some employer not at you can't always roll over money that's in the flexible spending account, but in this case, uh even if you have 660 bucks left over at the end of the year that you haven't used yet, you can roll that over into next year.

Um that's for the regular medical spending account, not for the dependent care, just to be clear on that.

Any questions on FSAs or taxability of premiums or anything like that?

Again, the easiest way to think about it is just if you if you if you can look at maybe your past year or a couple years expenses for you and your family.

If you think, all right, I'm definitely gonna have you know $3,000 worth of expenses for myself and my spouse and my child, uh, if you know that you're gonna have that, it would probably benefit you to put that money into an FSA because you're at least gonna be paying for those services before you pay taxes.

Yeah, good question.

So the question was for the dependent care FSA.

Um with it being different from the medical expending account where you get access to the money that you are setting aside, you get that on the front end and your payroll deductions come out throughout the year.

With the dependent care FSA, the money that you accrue is what you're able to be reimbursed for.

So the way that that will work in reality is once you have once you've accrued enough money, you can make the you make the election now.

You have to make these elections now.

It's a it's an annual irrevocable election.

That's how they allow this stuff to come out pre-taxes.

So you're making this election now.

The money that you accrue throughout the year is not gonna be the full 7500.

So once you accrue that money over the course of the year, that's when you can start uh submitting receipts or like uh invoices for daycare, things like that.

Once you have accrued enough money, then that's when you can start submitting the receipts.

So the way this will probably work in reality is you will not have accrued enough until maybe later on in the year, and so just hang on to those receipts and you can submit them towards the end of the year.

You can also as a convenience, you're able to submit expenses up to two or three months after into the next effective date.

So let's say you had December expenses that you wanted to use for dependent care FSA, you could wait theoretically until the very end of the year to get that, and then at that point you should have whatever your full amount accrued is.

But that's a good question.

So with the dependent care, it's as you accrue these funds, that's when you can start um requesting reimbursement from those accounts.

But the same same gist, it's just allowing you to pay for something without having to pay taxes on it, because it's coming out of your uh paycheck pre-tax.

Does that did that sound good?

Okay.

All right.

Um another thing that I wanted to be sure to point out when we're talking about the medical is the access to the employee clinic.

Has um has anyone in the room been to the clinic before?

Have you guys used it?

Yeah, it's a it's a wonderful service, I think.

Um, especially when you look at it in conjunction with the wellness program that the city offers.

Um it's a great place to get your health assessment, any sort of preventive services.

Um the the standard model right now with doctors is I see I went like two weeks ago and I got to my appointment, let's say like 10 minutes early, and then I had to fill up paperwork, which took, you know.

So I'm sitting in the lobby about 10 to 15 minutes after my appointment should have started, and then I waited for another 30 minutes before the doctor could see me, and then I saw the doctor for like it felt like five minutes, but um, you know, it's just the clinic allows you to speak to a medical professional without any sort of pressure or wait about like them trying to shut shuffle you know employees in and out, so you're actually able to sit and talk more long term about your health.

Um you're gonna have someone who's more based on the way that um you know the providers in the clinic are compensated.

They're they're really they're just focused on like what's going on with you, are there any health conditions that we can help with?

Um it's it's no cost to you as well, too.

So there's many benefits why you would want to go to the clinic, especially with it being convenient, and then you can get 100 bucks for even doing your health assessment, you can get another 100 bucks for completing any sort of treatment plan, or if you're in um good enough health uh and you don't even need a treatment plan, that's just uh another 100 bucks.

So I encourage everyone, especially the preventive stuff.

It's 100% covered.

There are um as you get older, there are certain procedures that are included in that preventive stuff that's covered at 100% too.

So I encourage everyone to go get all of those things because they're free, and we need more information about our bodies and and what we can do to make sure that we're trending in a in a positive direction health-wise.

Um any questions on the clinic.

I got the hours of operation over here on the left.

Um it's right around the corner.

So any questions that you have on that, please please don't hesitate.

We um the clinic is something that we should all be all should all should be looking to use primarily before we try and go any.

As long as it's not an emergency or a specialty situation, I would always try to go through the clinic first.

Okay.

Um if you if you already have coverage through um another plan, maybe your spouse's plan, um, there actually is a health benefit waiver that you can submit.

And if uh if you contribute to the FSA, then the city will match those FSA funds.

So just to be clear, um, this is for those that are uh participating, you have to be on an insurance plan that is not the one that's offered through the city and uh complete the affidavit.

Uh there's a deadline on the affidavit, I believe it's the end of November.

Um so you have to get that affidavit in before the end of November to get uh to get access to the matching funds that uh that you're putting into your FSA.

But if you think about it, if you again know that you're gonna have health expenses, you can put $500 into an FSA and the city's gonna give you a free $500, which uh, you know, depending on your family situation, you know you're gonna use.

So it's it's it's free money, so I encourage everyone who is on a different plan to fill out that FSA affidavit and contribute to their FSA.

If you don't contribute to the FSA, there's no match, so it's it's a true match.

Okay.

Now we're gonna move into the dental coverage.

It's the same uh as last year.

There's two plans.

There's a base and a buyout plan.

The buyout the buyout plan has a larger annual max.

The way that I think about dental also is that it is, you know, they're not just cutting you a check for services.

What they're doing is they're giving you a discount off of select you know the services that you can see on the screen right here.

They're giving you a discount off of those services up to a certain amount of money per year.

So when you get billed a ta uh you know, type B basic treatment, let's say your bill was a hundred bucks, the plan's gonna cover 80% of that, and you're gonna cover 20 bucks.

So the plan, that 80 bucks accrues towards your annual annual benefit maximum.

Um another reason why you might want to look at the buyout plan is it also has orthodontia for for your kids up to age 19, uh, whereas the base plan doesn't.

But the only other really difference between the base and the buyout plan is that the buyout plan also covers implants, whereas the the base plan doesn't.

Implants are um pretty expensive, so that's a good that's a good benefit as well.

Any questions on the dental?

Again, this is these aren't changing from last year.

Uh there are some updates to the vision plan.

Uh we this we move this over to Anthem for an enhanced plan, and then the the premiums are actually a little bit less expensive.

But uh the first thing you'll notice is uh in bold, there are uh Anthem has what are called what they call plus providers.

And so these are um doctors, optometrists that they would that they've vetted that are um known for charging um you know uh uh a competitive amount and their their outcomes are better.

So these are better doctors, and Anthem would prefer you go to these doctors to cut down on some of those readmissions or problems or um complications.

Um not saying that's gonna happen with the other providers, I'm just saying the way that Anthem thinks about it is these plus providers have been selected, these are their premier partners, and they reward you for going to these partners.

So you can see um on the vision is similar to the dental with them being a base and a and a buyup plan, and you can see that there is no copay for either plan if you go to a plus provider, and then for um for your frame allowance, uh that that frame allowance is increasing for both the base and buyout plan uh from last year's plan in general.

But if you go to a plus provider, it's an additional 50 bucks for for both of those.

So if you're on the base plan, uh if you go to a uh plus provider, you're getting a 200 frame allowance uh and then the buyout plan is a 250 dollar frame allowance.

And I think last year that those numbers were only like 80 and maybe 130.

So those are both frame uh allowance enhancements and even more if you go to a plus provider.

Uh the last major difference really is that the frame allowance on the buy-up plan is every 12 months as opposed to every two years.

Uh any questions on the vision or having to do with the plus providers?

Sure.

Hey.

Yeah, so if uh same way you're gonna find any sort of in-network for medical, dental or vision, and we'll there'll be some more information here at the end, but um, we're just gonna go to the Anthem's website, and then we'll have uh in the benefit guide, it'll actually tell you the name of the vision network.

And so you just go to Anthem, you plug it, you type, you say I'm looking for an in-network uh vision provider, it'll ask you what network.

I think it's blue vision, and then it'll tell you uh what those uh in-network providers are, and then it'll also identify what the plus providers are too.

Um but yeah, nothing too crazy here.

There's just you can get you know, pay less copay or get a higher frame allowance if you go to certain providers, and then um the frame allowance has just been increased on both plans, which is nice.

Okay.

Um no changes here, but just to re just to reiterate the uh basic life options, is depending on uh which um category uh that you fall into, but this is just a reminder, most employees are gonna get three times your annual earnings up to a maximum of 300k, which is a wonderful benefit from the city.

But all these are employer paid for uh and really no changes, these are just uh with Lincoln.

Um the basic life again is paid for by the city.

Uh the ADD insurance also is, and that's just an additional it in essence it really just doubles your life insurance amount if um the result of the result of the claim was from an accident.

Okay, um the next so this is the employee uh the city pays for that life insurance.

Uh that's jumping.

But they also get an opportunity um to sign up for optional life insurance.

So if the basic amount isn't enough for you, there's you can get uh an additional amount.

Um the maximums and GIs are the same uh as last year.

I did want to point out that if you are currently enrolled in the optional life, you can increase your coverage without having to answer any sort of medical questions.

That's really the only holdup with people that are signing up for optional life is if you're over the guaranteed amount.

The guaranteed amount just is how much they're willing to give you without having to answer any sort of uh medical questions or or proof of good health.

Um for employees, that's uh up to 200k without having to answer medical questions, which is a great benefit.

However, if you've waived that benefit in the past, uh if you want to sign up for it now, you will have to submit evidence of insurability.

If you're currently enrolled in the benefit and you're still under that GI amount, you can increase your amount up to 20K without having to answer any medical questions at this enrollment, which is nice.

Um questions on how the GI works or during the open enrollment.

It's the reason why uh tip if you're a new employee, you can get the full GI.

Again, if you are an existing employee, you can increase your amount if you're currently enrolled, but if you've waived in the past, you'll have to submit evidence of insurability.

Any questions on that?

That was uh kind of a lot.

Okay.

The short-term disability is also with Lincoln, same plan designs.

Um just move to Lincoln.

It kicks in after you are either sick or um uh disabled at as a result of an accident for 14 days.

Uh so this is also applicable for uh maternity leave as well too.

So it's gonna cover 60% of your salary up to 2500 bucks a week, and it pays for up to 26 weeks, and that will dovetail right into the long-term disability, which takes over uh at the end of the, let's say that you're still disabled after 26 weeks, it will dovetail um you'll automatically be moved into that long-term disability um window, and then the long-term disability is uh kind of an underrated benefit because I think we all are hopeful that well, I know that we're all hopeful that we will never um get hurt or have any sort of um problem that prevents us from having to work.

But if you are uh if you do fall in fall into that category, the long-term disability will pay for uh 60% of your salary up to $5300 a month, uh, either until you can return to work or until your retirement age, which is wonderful.

So depending on your age, that's that benefit could pay for um you know decades.

The short-term and long-term disability are both voluntary, so this is something that you'll have to look at.

All the prices when you're going through the process and benefit Swift, when you click on it, it'll tell you uh what that cost per paycheck would be.

But something I encourage you to look at, especially if you have you know family, unfortunately, when we um get hurt and can't work, you know, we still have got still bills to pay.

Any questions on the disability before we move on?

Yes, ma'am.

You're talking about a pre-ex?

Yeah.

So did was that on the last screen?

Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

So with the disability plans, um, a pre-existing condition, so in this case, uh a 312.

What they're gonna look at is they're gonna take from the effective date, so January 1st, 2026, when you're applying for this coverage, they're gonna look, okay, what was your medical experience in the past three months?

So the months leading up to January.

Um if you have been disabled for any sort of reason in the past three months, they're going to not pay out a benefit until you have been free of any sort of um services related to that prior disability for 12 months.

So the way that you think about it is they look back three months to see what's going on, and then if they find something, you have to be treatment fee free for that specific thing.

Like if something else happens and it's totally unrelated, but they look back three months.

If they find something, you need to be treatment free for that disability for the next 12 months before they start paying.

Does that make sense?

Um I don't think that they treat I'll have to confirm.

I think that they treat pregnancy a little differently than that.

Um that's a that's a good question.

It's a good takeaway.

Yeah, absolutely.

So typically I would say that you if you've waived in the past, then you would be subject to that evidence of surveillity.

But with it being a new carrier, uh they may have waived that, but I will uh that's a good one to confirm.

Um typically the carrier is going to uh especially for these for disability, just because of the possibility of them having to pay out a benefit for years and years, they're typically going to take over um take over from the prep from the prior carrier without reopening this.

But that's a it's a good question to ask for sure.

And then I'll get clarity on if pregnancy is is subject to that as well.

Yeah.

Good point.

So if you have short term and you don't have long-term, your short-term disability benefits into that 26-week mark.

And if you have long-term disability but not short-term disability, you have 180 days before you have to stay disabled for 180 days before the long-term disability takes over.

But if you have both of them, they because they're both with Lincoln, the short-term disability, their claims team will roll that into their long-term disability department if you have both of them.

So you're not having to like refile for um refile the claim or anything like that.

It's nice when you have the short and long-term disability with the same carrier, but that's a good point.

The only way that it would flow into the short term would flow into a long term is if you um paid for both of those.

Absolutely.

No, so that that's a good that's a good point.

So typically the uh the leave policies within the internal leave policies are not gonna be offset, so you're still getting credit for that.

People do that a lot where you are using whatever sort of whatever sort of accrued leave that you have can get you so far.

Um typically it won't it's not gonna give you that full 180 days, but yeah, you can certainly use your leave to kind of bridge that gap.

Okay, good questions.

Um this plan was enhanced a little bit last year, but uh no changes this year.

Uh one of the one of the things that the city would like you all to just understand is that you have access to these services.

Uh a lot of it will be to do with power of attorneys or will preparation services, but they can also just review documents.

Um, let's say you're buying a house, any anything you really wanted uh uh uh access to a lawyer for.

Uh the coverage costs about 20 bucks a month.

So um if you don't have a lawyer or if you you know you think that you're gonna need some documents reviewed coming up soon, it may be a good idea, maybe a good idea to look at this.

Uh the service also covers ID theft protection, which um you know, personally I find valuable, just they'll send you a text like, hey, did you did you target your credit card in this place?

So they say that cyber crimes are gonna be, you know, 85% of the crimes here in the future, so just something to consider.

Any questions on the legal services?

Okay.

Um the AFLAC plans are staying the same.

The first one we we can talk about is the critical illness, and you can see the covered conditions in the in the top and two columns, but pretty much it's like heart attack and stroke or any sort of any sort of uh kind of heavy diagnosis that you're getting, this plan is likely going to pay out uh a benefit for it.

So there's a there's a schedule.

Some the things that are you you can buy increments of this plan, which is why it's it's sometimes challenging to talk about.

It's not it's not a set amount.

You can go into BSwift and select you know how much you'd like to up to 50,000 dollars.

You're guaranteed 30,000, so um you're guaranteed to get at least that amount.

Uh you may have to submit, you will have to submit EOI for the additional 20 20k that's over the 30 guaranteed amount.

But um, in essence, if you pay if you got $50,000 in critical illness, it would it would pay you that benefit if you um happen to get diagnosed with or experience one of these conditions at the top.

Um but yeah, that's the way to think about it is this is just gonna give you a flat lap sum uh lump sum for the event that you were diagnosed or experienced one of these um kind of large medical events.

Any questions on the critical illness?

Um accident accident also staying the same with AFLAC.

The way that I think about this is it's um it's it's less of a heavy medical diagnosis, isn't it?

You fell off a ladder and broke your arm, or you burned you burned burned yourself somehow or cut your arm or something like that.

So it's it's more of something that uh happened sporadically as opposed to a medical, you know, long longer term diagnosis.

But the gist of it is the same as it's gonna pay you a flat dollar amount.

You can see the schedule of benefits here.

There's also a more detailed schedule on the employee portal, but it's gonna pay pay you a flat dollar amount if you you know if one of the if one of these things were to happen to you.

You can see there's an emergency room benefit.

So, like if you went to the ER, it's gonna cut you a check for 200 bucks.

So that's the way that a lot of people think about these AFLAC plans is um they're typically pretty inexpensive.

You can see them pulley only is like two bucks a week, uh, and it cover it'll can potentially help you cover your deductible expenses if something were to happen.

Any questions on the accident?

Kidok.

Um, so there's a couple, you know, when we're talking about uh mental health.

I think that uh sometimes people forget that they have access to um counselors and therapists uh through the employee assistance program.

So we just wanted to take a second to make sure that everyone is aware of that.

The program that we have access through through Lincoln, there's a the actual portal is there at the bottom.

Um this will be available to you on the employee uh benefit resource center as well, too.

But it can be a video or in-person consultation with a therapist or counselor for all of these different uh different reasons, and it's three consultations per event.

So let's say you you had a consultation, you say you had three consultations for uh financial planning services.

You can get three more if you wanted to do like uh have a have a discussion about legal services or uh another category of um issues that they they can help you with.

So it's three per type of category, which is nice.

So uh any questions on the employee assistance program.

I think once you follow the link, you can kind of get a feel for their they're willing to help match you up with um a counselor, whether you want to do that in person or virtually, uh just a good just good benefit to have if you need it.

Um this there's some additional discounts.

We can find some more information on the employee center as well, too.

But uh just get some discounts for some other types of insurance as well.

And then so my company has a service center.

We have all of the rates and plan designs, everything loaded and benefit Swift.

Again, so you can use us to help enroll.

Um, and then if you just have any general questions, the service center can help look up anything, and then throughout the year, they can help you with um you know claim questions and things like that that you have as well, too.

Um, but we just want to make sure that you have clarity on the different ways that you can get some help through this uh October enrollment period.

And then I think the last thing, yeah.

So this is the benefit resource center that I keep alluding to.

Um that link.

That link is how you get to everything that will it'll have this, it'll have the benefit guide that you can access, and it'll also have uh the more detailed plan summaries and just kind of a um a database of all the different questions that you could potentially have.

On the on the center on the site, you'll see that the information that's posted there is still for 2025.

There is an open enrollment section that you go to.

That's how you get to the information that's for 2026.

And then once we hit January, then uh all that information changes over.

But we the information right there is just for um for anyone that has any, especially if you have more detailed questions about accessing the benefit summaries and things like that.

But you can also scan that QR code as well, too, should take you to the website as well.

Um I think that was pretty much everything.

Yeah, so um I think that was everything I wanted to mention.

Did does anyone have any questions that we've now that we've gone through everything?

It can be anything benefit related or signing up or B Swift related.

Okay, if not, I think that was it.

I appreciate you guys taking the time.

Again, we have uh a couple enrollers outside that can answer questions or literally help you sign up.

And if you have new questions for me, uh please don't hesitate to come up to me after the meeting.

Thank you all.