Benefits 24/7 stabilization update - week of April 21-25

Washington State Health Care Authority sent this bulletin at 04/25/2025 12:10 PM PDT

4.25.2025

Dear Benefits Administrators,

Here are updates on HCA’s priorities and progress to stabilize the Benefits 24/7 platform for PEBB and SEBB employees. Our intention is to keep you informed on identified issues, how we’re prioritizing them, and when they’re addressed.

This list does not include all the identified issues, but several that we are prioritizing based on their impact on members’ enrollment. Keep in mind that we’re balancing the work on these issues with additional system issues affecting other PEBB and SEBB members, including retirees.

New priorities

Fix for vision premiums with Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) pension deductions for some PEBB retiree accounts. HCA has been working with DRS to update the pension deduction process to include vision premiums. Medical and dental premiums through pension deduction were not affected. HCA sent letter invoices to affected retirees explaining the impacts to their accounts.

Updates on previously reported priorities

Long-term fix for pension deductions on some PEBB retiree accounts. In January, HCA implemented a short-term fix for DRS-identified accounts in which the pension deduction for UMP premiums was incorrectly removed. HCA has been working on a long-term fix. HCA has been invoicing affected retiree subscribers monthly.

Issues that have been addressed

Managing dependent attestation updates. An update has been made to the system so when a dependent relationship has been removed via the Manage Dependents tab in Benefits 24/7, the system records an attestation end date to accurately terminate the dependent relationship.

Performing demographic changes for PEBB subscriber transfers. A fix has been applied to transmit demographic updates between the Benefits 24/7 and Pay1 systems when a PEBB subscriber transfers out from a PEBB organization but has a demographic change before being added by a new PEBB organization.

Tobacco attestation. When a newly hired employee goes through Benefits 24/7 to make their benefit selections, the prepopulated tobacco attestation was set to “Yes” and the employee was required to change the response if not applicable. Based on feedback received, the tobacco attestation question is now blank for new employees, and they are required to select a “Yes” or “No” response before moving forward.

Dual enrollment processing cycle. The system processing frequency has changed to nightly (from weekdays) to accurately capture the end date of medical coverage for dependents who become a subscriber on their own coverage.

If you continue to have challenges on an issue that has been addressed, please submit a new ticket to HCA’s Outreach & Training team.

You can access weekly updates on the Benefits Administrator website via the pink alert box and under Notices and updates.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we diligently work on resolving these and other issues.

About the Health Care Authority (HCA)

Functioning as both the state's largest health care purchaser and its behavioral health authority, the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) is a leader in ensuring Washington residents have the opportunity to be as healthy as possible.

There are three pillars of our work: Apple Health (Medicaid); the Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) and School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB) programs; and behavioral health and recovery. Under these pillars, HCA purchases health care, including behavioral health treatment for more than 2.7 million Washington residents and provides behavioral health prevention, crisis, and recovery supports to all Washington residents.

Please do not reply directly to this message. For more information, visit the HCA website, where you'll also find contact information.

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