Employee Benefits Open Enrollment Will Be Held Online October 9–November 3

Open Enrollment for MCPS employee benefits will be held online this year from Monday, Oct. 9—Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, with changes effective January 1, 2018. Open Enrollment is your chance to review your health plan options and make any necessary changes. It also is your chance to make your and your spouse’s 2017 tobacco-use attestation(s).

What to Expect

• If you are a benefits-eligible employee, you will receive Open Enrollment information and instructions in your MCPS Outlook email account on October 6, 2017. The email will include a link to the Employee Self-Service (ESS) web page for accessing the online Benefits Enrollment System and making your tobacco-use attestation, the 2018 Employee Benefit Summary, the Open Enrollment memorandum, and more.
• Enrolling in or making changes to your benefits and/or enrolling in a flexible spending account (FSA) for 2018 will be conducted entirely online again this year.
• Tobacco-use attestations also will be made online. If you will be covered by an MCPS-provided medical plan in 2018, during Open Enrollment you must attest to whether or not you and your covered spouse will be tobacco-free throughout 2017. If you do not attest for you and your covered spouse or attest to one or both of you NOT being tobacco-free throughout 2017, you will pay a 25 percent surcharge on the total cost of your health insurance in 2018.
• You will be able to view and print confirmation of your benefit changes from the Benefits Enrollment System. You also will receive confirmation in your MCPS Outlook email account.
• Details regarding Open Enrollment and 2018 MCPS employee benefits will be available on the Open Enrollment web page beginning Friday, October 6, 2017.

Benefit Changes for 2018:

• MCPS no longer will offer Cigna medical plans or any Closed Point-of-Service (POS) plan. You may choose from the following plans:
  • CareFirst BlueChoice Advantage (POS)
  • CareFirst BlueChoice HMO
  • Kaiser Permanente HMO

Those currently covered by Cigna automatically will transition to the same plan type with CareFirst, unless they elect another plan during Open Enrollment. This means that if you currently are covered by a Cigna POS plan (open or closed), you will transition to CareFirst’s POS plan, and if now covered by Cigna’s HMO, you will move to CareFirst’s HMO.

• The tobacco-user surcharge will increase to 25 percent.
• MCPS no longer will match the first $100 of employees’ medical FSA contributions.
• The maximum amount an employee may contribute to a medical FSA in 2018 will be $2,600.
• Copays for prescription drugs and emergency room and specialist visits will increase.
• CareFirst will introduce new disease-management programs for high cholesterol and hypertension.
• CareMark will adopt Centers for Disease Control-recommended limits to opioid prescriptions.
• CareFirst’s PPO dental plan will cover dental implants.

Be Prepared for Open Enrollment

Take these simple steps to make sure you are ready for this year’s Employee Benefits Open Enrollment.

• Make sure you can access your MCPS Outlook email account. Need help? Visit myID or contact the MCPS Help Desk.
• Check your MCPS employee Outlook email on October 6, 2017, for Open Enrollment information and instructions from the Employee and Retiree Service Center (ERSC).
• Stay in touch with ERSC for Open Enrollment news. Follow us on Twitter and visit us online.