Annual Open Enrollment for medical, dental, vision and flexible spending accounts will begin on Monday, October 29, 2007 and end on Friday, November 30, 2007 for all benefit eligible employees of UA-Huntsville.  All elections made during open enrollment will be effective January 1, 2008.  

It is not necessary to respond, unless you are making  changes to your existing plans, such as:    

• changing your level of coverage as it relates to a single or family plan  
• adding or deleting dependents
• changing from basic to comprehensive level of coverage or vice versa with the dental plan
• enrolling or dropping existing medical, dental, and/or vision coverage
• enrolling in the FSA program for 2008 

 For more information on all of these important changes, please refer to the information linked below.

 UAH Communication Materials

 Open Enrollment Letter 

2008 Open Enrollment Form

2008 Premium Rates

Medical Plan Links and Summary Booklets

UAH is pleased to continue offering eligible employees medical coverage through Blue Cross/Blue Shield.  Premiums for health insurance are pretax deductions from your paycheck.  With the Blue Card PPO program providers are accessible nationwide.  To maximize your benefits, always visit a Blue Card PPO physician.  Refer to the open enrollment letter for changes effective January 1, 2008.  

Blue Cross/Blue Shield (800) 292-8868

2008 Blue Cross Summary

Dental Plan Links and Summary Booklets

UAH is pleased to continue offering eligible employees a choice of two stand-alone dental plans (Basic or Comprehensive coverage) provided by MetLife.  Employees who choose a dental plan are not required to choose additional health care or vision coverage. Premiums for dental insurance are pretax deductions from your paycheck.

MetLife dental plans are accepted nationwide, which means you can go to the dentist of your choice.  In order to save more money on out-of-pocket expenses, MetLife does offer a Preferred Dental Provider (PDP) network.  If you utilize a dentist who participates in the PDP network, you are guaranteed not to be charged more than the scheduled fees MetLife has agreed to pay to participating providers.  These fees are typically 10% to 35% below average fees of dentists in your area.  

 MetLife 1-800-GET-MET8

Dental Announcement Letter

Dental Plan Overview

Click Here for a list of Preferred Dental Providers - these providers are within 30 miles of UAH.  

The provider directory is available online at www.metlife.com/mybenefits.  Note the dental plan is a UA System wide plan.  When accessing the website,  enter "UAH" for employer and then choose "University of Alabama System."

Vision Plan (VSP) Links and Summary

UAH is pleased to continue offering eligible employees a voluntary vision program through Vision Service Plan (VSP).  Premiums for vision insurance are pretax deductions from your paycheck.  To maximize benefits, always visit a participating provider.  

Vision Service Plan 1-800-877-7195

Summary of VSP Vision Benefit

VSP Provider Directory

Flexible Spending Accounts Links

UAH employees can take advantage of flexible spending accounts (FSAs), which are pretax reimbursement accounts administered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama (BCBS) for eligible medical and dependent care expenses.
Employees must re-enroll in the FSA program during annual open enrollment for the 2008 calendar year.  With an FSA, you can set aside pretax money via payroll deductions to pay for health care and dependent care expenses not covered by your benefit plan. Money set aside in these accounts will reduce your taxable income, providing you with more value for the dollar.  You can use the Tax Savings Calculator in order to help estimate your expenses for 2008.

You can set aside up to $3,900 per year in a health care account.
For dependent care accounts, you can set aside $5,000 or $2,500 for married taxpayers filing separate returns.

UAH will again offer – at no cost to employees – the popular preferred flex debit card that provides employees instant point of purchase access to the pre-tax funds available in their health care FSAs. Employees will still need to keep their receipts because the IRS requires substantiation of all reimbursements, including flex debit card transactions. In most cases, Blue Cross Blue Shield will use claims data to accommodate this requirement for health care claims. If they do not have the claims data or if the transaction cannot be validated, you will be required to provide documentation with receipts. Failure to submit the documentation/ receipts can result in the expense being labeled as “ineligible.” In such cases, you would be obligated to repay the amount to the plan. Failure to submit documentation/ receipts can also result in deactivation of your card.  Please refer to the documents below for more information on this important program.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield FSA Administrator (800) 213-7930

Preferred Flex Card (debit card) Brochure

Health Care Booklet

Dependent Care Booklet