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April 30, 2012
The first quarter of 2012 has already drawn to a close. The new year saw the transfer of insurers for our Medicare eligible population from CIGNA to United Healthcare. By all accounts the transition went as smoothly as possible, and we thank everyone again for their patience in the transition. While changing insurers is not something the Board takes lightly, the cost savings was too great to ignore. As importantly as the initial transfer, retiree feedback about United Healthcare's customer service and professionalism has been extremely positive thusfar, a testiment to what we had learned about the company prior to making the change.
Also on a positive note, the VEBA's investments performed solidly in the first quarter of the year as the overall market seems to calming a bit. Because the VEBA's investments are conservatively hedged, the VEBA is not as prone to follow the drastic highs and lows of the market, but those forces have an effect on all investments, so our investment advisors keep us regularly updated about performance and any suggested changes in the portfolio.
With the beginning of the second quarter of the year, the VEBA's actuaries have begun performing their annual audit to ensure that the VEBA's operations are in order and that its vendors are employing best practices. This year there will also be an analysis of all claims paid by the VEBA's Third Party Administrator (Comprehensive Benefits). This additional analysis is undertaken every three years as an added measure of accountability. Finally, we have already started the process of determining credit amounts and premium rates for 2013 with our health care auditors. Information on credits and rates will be gathered and discussed with final recommendations coming to us in late July at the annual Board meeting. In the meantime, we continue to have monthly telephone calls with the VEBAs vendors to make sure everything is running properly. We will update this website again after the July meeting. If anything out of the ordinary occur before then, we will let you know through this website or by mail. Thank you.
The Dana Non-Union VEBA Administrative Board
Michael Carrigan (Chairman), Edward Balcar, John Black, Donna Doyle and Thomas Schlemmer
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Many VEBA participants have inquired about the impact of the recent health care reforms (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act) . The good news is that retiree only plans like ours have largely been exempted from the current reforms. In fact, some members saw savings in co-pays this year. We do, however, keep a close eye on current and pending laws to see not only what the VEBA may be required to do, but also whether there are proposed programs that we can take advantage of. Please click here to view an overview of health care reforms.
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For participants of VEBA, the final draft of the Summary Plan Description (SPD) and the Plan Document is available. Please click here to view the document.
*For individual, benefit specific questions please call Comprehensive Benefits at at 1-866-914-3768 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
