C and O Employees' Hospital Association

 

 

Effective January 1, 2012

ATTENTION MEDICARE MEMBERSHIP – PLAN SEVEN

(WITH PART D PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE)

Due to the continuing increase in healthcare services and prescription drugs, the Board of Directors of the C and O Employees’ Hospital Association found it necessary to increase the monthly premium as follows:

Effective January 1, 2012, your premium for Medicare Supplemental and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug coverage will increase from $250 to $260 per month. This is the first increase we have implemented since 2009.

If you are utilizing our automatic dues deduction program, you will not have to complete any additional paperwork. The new rate will automatically be deducted from your checking account on the 5th of the month beginning January 5, 2012.

If you have sent premiums in advance, you will need to remit an additional $10 for each month that you have paid beginning with the month of January 2012. Please include on your check, your C and O Employees’ Hospital Association Membership Identification Number, which begins with COF.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-800-679-9135 or local residents in the Clifton Forge, VA area at 862-5728.

We value your membership in the C and O Employees’ Hospital Association.

Sincerely

Jack N. Pate

 

ATTENTION MEDICARE MEMBERSHIP – PLAN TEN

(WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE)

 

Due to the continuing increase in healthcare services, the Board of Directors of the C and O Employees’ Hospital Association found it necessary to increase the monthly premium as follows:

Effective January 1, 2012, your premium for Medicare Supplemental coverage will increase from $165 to $170 per month. This is the first increase we have implemented since 2009.

If you are utilizing our automatic dues deduction program, you will not have to complete any additional paperwork. The new rate will automatically be deducted from your checking account on the 5th of the month beginning January 5, 2012.

If you have sent premiums in advance, you will need to remit an additional $5 for each month that you have paid beginning with the month of January 2012. Please include on your check, your C and O Employees’ Hospital Association Membership Identification Number, which begins with COF.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-800-679-9135 or local residents in the Clifton Forge, VA area at 862-5728.

We value your membership in the C and O Employees’ Hospital Association.

Sincerely,

Jack N. Pate

 

January 7, 2011

NOTICE ABOUT THE EARLY RETIREE REINSURANCE PROGRAM

The C and O Employees’ Hospital Association has been accepted into the Federal Early Retiree Reinsurance Program

You are a plan participant, or are being offered the opportunity to enroll as a plan participant, in an employment-based health plan that is certified for participation in the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program is a Federal program that was established under the Affordable Care Act. Under the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, the Federal government reimburses a plan sponsor of an employment-based health plan for some of the costs of health care benefits paid on behalf of, or by, early retirees and certain family members of early retirees participating in the employment-based plan. By law, the program expires on January 1, 2014.

Under the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, your plan sponsor may choose to use any reimbursements it receives from this program to reduce or offset increases in plan participants’ premium contributions, co-payments, deductibles, co-insurance, or other out-of-pocket costs. If the plan sponsor chooses to use the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program reimbursements in this way, you, as a plan participant, may experience changes that may be advantageous to you in your health plan coverage terms and conditions for so long as the reimbursements under this program are available and this plan sponsor chooses to use the reimbursements for this purpose. A plan sponsor may also use the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program reimbursements to reduce or offset increases in its own costs for maintaining your health benefits coverage, which may increase the likelihood that it will continue to offer health benefits coverage to its retirees and employees and their families.

If you have received this notice by email, you are responsible for providing a copy of this notice to your family members who are participants in this plan.

GRANDFATHERED HEALTH PLAN UNDER THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

The C and O Employees’ Hospital Association believes our plan is a "grandfathered health plan" under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("the Affordable Care Act"). As permitted by the Affordable Care Act, a grandfathered health plan can preserve certain basic health coverage that was already in effect when that law was enacted. A grandfathered health plan means that your plan may not include certain consumer protections of the Affordable Care Act that apply to other plans. For example, the requirement for the provisions of preventative health services without cost sharing. However, grandfathered health plans must comply with certain other consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act, for example, the elimination of lifetime limits on benefits.

Questions regarding which protections apply and which protections do not apply to a grandfathered health plan and what might cause a plan to change from a grandfathered health plan status can be directed to the plan administrator at 1-800-679-9135 or locally in the Clifton Forge, VA area at 862-5728. You may also contact the Employee Benefits Security Administration, U. S. Department of Labor at 1-866-444-3272 or www.dol.gov/ebsa/healthreform. This website has a table summarizing which protections do and do not apply to grandfathered health plans.