Employee Advisory: Health Benefits Open Enrollment; COVID-19 testing updates

Mercer County, New Jersey sent this bulletin at 09/27/2021 03:48 PM EDT

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OPEN ENROLLMENT – HEALTH BENEFITS

The upcoming open enrollment period for health, dental and vision benefits will be from October 1, 2021 through October 31, 2021. During this time any eligible employee may make changes, additions and/or deletions to coverage with an effective date of January 1, 2022.

All coverage changes in employee or dependency status must be reported to the Insurance and Property Management Office within 60 days. Any additions of dependents not reported in the specified time period must be made in the subsequent annual open enrollment period. All salary deductions will remain until deletions are made.

MEDICAL PLANS

The New Jersey State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) introduced a new portal, Benefitsolver, for accessing all Mercer County employees benefit enrollment needs, including the fall Annual Open Enrollment period. Please be advised with the implementation of the new portal, paper applications are no longer accepted.

You will be able to log in to review your health benefit information and make any changes. Navigate to: http://mynjbenefitshub.nj.gov.

DENTAL PLANS

The providers for 2022 will be DELTA DENTAL AND DENTAL SERVICES ORGANIZATION, INC. (Eastern Dental). ALL CHANGES WILL BECOME EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2021.

The County is once again offering three DELTA DENTAL plans. DELTA DENTAL will continue to provide the basic traditional freedom of choice plan (PLAN NUMBER 3402-0001) in which you or your eligible dependents may go to any dentist of your choice. This is a scheduled benefit plan. There is no payroll deduction for this plan.

DELTA DENTAL will also provide a voluntary program (PLAN NUMBER 3402-0002) which will provide an enhanced benefit schedule. This plan has been offered by the County for many years. If you choose this upgraded plan, the following monthly deduction will be made from your paycheck:

  • Employee Only $21.84
  • Employee Plus One Dependent $38.38
  • Employee Plus Two or More Dependents $59.23

Additionally, DELTA DENTAL will continue to offer an enhanced voluntary program (PLAN NUMBER 3402-6001) which will provide an expanded benefit schedule and higher calendar year maximum. If you choose this enhanced program, the following monthly deductions will be made from your paycheck:

  • Employee Only $17.28
  • Employee Plus One Dependent $29.77
  • Employee Plus Two or More Dependents $43.48

DENTAL SERVICES ORGANIZATION, INC. (EASTERN DENTAL) will continue to provide services at their various locations throughout the state. The monthly payroll deduction from your paycheck for this plan will be the following:

  • Employee Only $17.43
  • Employee Plus One Dependent $34.40
  • Family $60.92

EYEMED VISION CARE PROGRAM

The County will once again be offering the Eyemed Vision Care basic services at no cost to the employee.

In addition, the employee may choose to enroll in a voluntary program with enhanced features. If you choose this upgraded plan, the bi-weekly payroll deduction will be as follows:

  • Employee Only $3.38
  • Employee + 1 $6.42
  • Employee + Family $9.40

Any employee desiring to enroll or make additions or coverage changes must do so during the month of October. Otherwise the employee will be required to wait another 12 months for the next open enrollment period.

Open enrollment forms and information on the program can be obtained from the Insurance and Property Management Office (Room 113) at the County Administration Building. If you have any questions regarding open enrollment, please contact Melissa Ocasio at 989-6082 and she will be happy to assist you.

ALL ENROLLMENT FORMS MUST BE RECEIVED IN THE INSURANCE AND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT OFFICE NO LATER THAN October 31, 2021.

COVID-19 test requirements for unvaccinated employees

Mercer County employees who have not submitted their vaccination status to the Mercer County Office of Personnel, and employees yet to be vaccinated are required to undergo county-administered weekly COVID-19 testing. 

Free tests will be administered between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 28 and Thursday, Sept. 30; and Wednesday, Sept. 29 from 4:30 to 7:30 at CURE Insurance Arena, Gate C.  

Testing is also held Mondays and Wednesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Correction Center. County employees who cannot attend testing at the Arena may instead go to the Correction Center.

For your convenience, Mercer County's mobile vaccine unit will be on site at the Arena for employees seeking to be vaccinated. The mobile unit will offer Moderna, Pfizer and J&J vaccines. Vaccine hours tomorrow will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Regarding coronavirus testing, employees may choose to be tested on any operating day at either site. Failure to take the county-administered COVID-19 test will result in disciplinary action per County policy, which is posted on the www.mercercounty.org website at https://www.mercercounty.org/departments/personnel/employee-covid-19-information

Free COVID-19 tests are also available for employees who are fully vaccinated but who wish to be tested. 

Again, fully vaccinated employees are being encouraged to disclose vaccination status for the purposes of determining quarantine requirements following any exposure to COVID-19 or any domestic/international travel.  For the purposes of this policy, fully vaccinated is defined as more than two (2) weeks following receipt of the second dose in a 2-dose series or more than two (2) weeks following receipt of one dose of a single-dose vaccine.

Results Reporting

You will be contacted by the Office of Personnel via e-mail 1-2 business days after your appointment date to notify you of your results.

For more information, please contact Alejandra M. Silva via e-mail at amsilva@mercercounty.org or by phone at (609) 989-6676

Fully vaccinated employees wishing to disclose their status may do so by:

•• Visiting https://www.mercercounty.org/departments/personnel/employee-covid-19-information and uploading a copy of their vaccination card into the portal.
•• Sending a copy of their vaccination card via e-mail to personnel@mercercounty.org
•• Faxing a copy of their vaccination card to the Office of Personnel at (609) 989-6535.
•• Visiting the Office of Personnel located at the McDade Administration Building in Room 110.

Your anticipated cooperation is appreciated. For more information, please contact the Mercer County Office of Personnel at (609) 989-6676.