Rock Beats

We’re preparing now for new plan year benefits

From Valerie Francois, Human Resources Director:

As we prepare for the new plan year for employee benefits (2016), there are a few things going on that we wanted to give you a heads up on.  We will be sending more information over the next few months as we plan for Open Enrollment in October.

Medical, Dental and Vision Plans

We are reviewing the Health, Dental and Vision plans to determine if any changes need to be made for next year. We are looking at contributions, both City and Employee, and plan design to ensure we can continue to provide the level of coverage you are accustomed to. As soon as we have more information, we will let you know.

Voluntary Benefit Options, City Paid benefits

We will be going out to bid for a new vendor to provide voluntary benefit options and two City paid benefits. The voluntary benefit options are critical illness, accident insurance, short term disability and voluntary life coverages. The City paid benefits are group term life insurance and long term disability.  The reason for this is to procure contracts with reliable, stable carriers that can provide the services we require for our growing workforce. We have had several complaints and other service problems with our current vendor and we made several attempts to work with them to improve. Since there has been no improvement, we felt it was time to make a change. Service commitment and cost will be the primary focus of our search.

Your current coverage will remain in effect until a new vendor is chosen. Everyone will be able to make elections during our Open Enrollment period. Stay tuned for an  update.

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)

In September, we will be transitioning from Aetna to PayFlex, as the administrator of our FSA plans.  For those of you who have a FSA debit card for medical expenses, the attached letter will give you a brief overview of what to expect.  There will be more information regarding the transition next month.

If you do not participate in FSA, you can disregard the letter.

Should you have any questions, please call Jay Light at 512-341-3143 or email him at jlight@roundrocktexas.gov.