Articles about the State GIC that may be useful to Massachusetts retirees
October 21, 2022: Thursday brought some highly anticipated news to the 460,000 enrollees covered by the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC). After months of closed-door work to review and score the winning bids from respondents through the procurement process, the GIC unveiled the 4 Medicare and 7 non-Medicare health insurance plans to be offered starting in FY24.
The U.S. Senate passed a historic budget bill on Aug. 7 that would help millions of Medicare enrollees better afford their life-sustaining medications and help millions more Americans pay their Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance premiums. The measure must now be approved by the House of Representatives before going to the president's desk.
Weekly Update 4/1/2022: Every five years the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC) is required to rebid all health insurance, pharmacy, dental, and life insurance contracts. FY23, which begins July 1, 2022, marks the final year of the current 5-year contract cycle for all GIC health insurance and pharmaceutical drug plans.
Today we anticipate the release of the first component of the GIC’s FY24 procurement – the Request for Response (RFR) for the health insurance plans. The pharmacy plan RFR will be released in early June.
The Shift to Whole Person Health
March 2022 Voice:
As healthcare costs have continued to rise, a major focus of Mass Retirees has been to look for and promote new ideas and solutions aimed at maintaining our members’ health while taking steps to keep insurance costs down.
Popular UniCare OME Plan to Increase 1.3%
March 3, 2022: The state’s Group Insurance Commission held their monthly meeting to vote on the plan design structure proposed at the January meeting, as well as vote on the plan rates for FY23. As we were anticipating from the January meeting the Commission voted to make no changes in the plan design, meaning members will see no increases to the copays and deductibles of the plans.
DECEMBER 10, 2021: As promised, for this week’s video I am joined by Bill Rehrey and Nancy McGovern for a sneak preview of our January 2022 edition of The Voice. Before I dive into the details of what you will find in the upcoming newsletter, I’d like to thank the thousands of members who have promptly renewed your Mass Retirees membership for 2022. November began our membership renewal process for next year, with notices mailed to the 20,000+ members who renew at the end of the year. Members receive a renewal notice base
House, Senate Discussing Vaccine Requirements for Their EmployeesKatie Lannan, State House News Service AUG. 19, 2021: About 42,000 state employees will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have secured a medical or religious exemption by Oct. 17, or face the risk of consequences including losing their jobs, under an executive order Gov. Charlie Baker signed Thursday.
MARCH 4, 2021: Group Insurance Commission Announces Fiscal Year 2022 Plan Rates: The Group Insurance Commission held their monthly meeting to set the premium rates for FY22 ahead of the open enrollment process. As we were anticipating from previous meetings the Commission voted on a 5.2% average increase across all plans, non-Medicare and Medicare plans. Overall, the average increase for the six Medicare plans is 2.3%. The most popular plan, the UniCare OME plan, has an increase, 2.2%, which equates to a total $8.94 increase for FY22.
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