TIPS

Team to Improve Productivity at Stanford

October 21, 2009

Medical Benefits/Human Embryo Development and Pluripotent Stem Cells

Location: Gates 104

Meeting Schedule

8:00 - 8:30 am
Informal networking
8:30 - 8:40
Welcome, Announcements
Susan Phillips-Moskowitz, TIPS Chair
8:40 - 9:10
Medical Benefits (Benefits)
Charles Lee, Manager, Health & Welfare Benefits
9:15 - 9:40
Human Embryo Development and Pluripotent Stem Cells
Dr. Reijo Pera, Member of Academic Council Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Institute for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine

Meeting Notes

Meeting Minutes:

Susan welcomed everyone.

Announcements:

Lisa Forgatsch, TIPS Co-Chair, reminded everyone about the Provost and CFO emails:

  • John Etchemendy, Provost: http://efficiency.stanford.edu/ - you can log in a variety of
    ways, create a UserVoice account, sign in with your Facebook or other social network, etc. You will need to verify your login via email after it's created, and then get into the blog.
  • Randy Livingston, Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer - Please respond to the Stanford Administrative Services Survey. The survey covers a wide number of different administrative areas, including research administration, purchasing, travel services, expense reimbursement, invoice payment, and human resources. You will be asked to respond only to questions relating to administrative services that you actually use. This survey supports the Provost's campaign toward efficiency and streamlining.

Susan introduced Charles Lee (Bio)

Medical Benefits (Benefits)
Charles Lee, Manager, Health & Welfare Benefits
Benefits Manager at Stanford University, Charles manages the health and welfare program for 13,000 employees (including the bargaining unit), plus 4,000 retirees. Some of his activities include benefit plan strategy, negotiating insurance arrangements, compliance, communications, and management of a third-party administrator that includes an outsourced employee call center and online presence for employee self-service.

Open Enrollment - October 26 thru November 13 at 5 pm.
Last Day to make corrections Dec 4.

Make sure to check open enrollment section of Benefit website for enrollment information (check the What You Need To Do section) http://benefits.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/open_enrollment/

Also, check the streaming "Open Enrollment" video presentation
http://benefits.stanford.edu/presentations/open_enrollment/.

The Benefits workshops calendar can be located at: http://benefits.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/overview/benefits_calendar/ (enrollment through STARS)

Benefits has an Educated "Chooser" tool to help you pick the right plan for you. You can find the tool at: http://stanford2009.chooser2.pbgh.org/.

Communications
There will be no printed statements anymore - you can print from the online confirmation.
Exception: Union employees and regular employees out on Leave - we are mailing an open enrollment package.
The newsletter is the only printed piece being mailed to employees. The newsletter will contain what's changing, the rate table, O/E Checklist and step-by-step instructions. Everything else will be available on the Benefits website.

Electronic Communications
On October 26, you will see a campus-wide message : Open Enrollment is Open.

There will also be targeted messaging:

  • you haven't logged on yet (x2)
  • Child Care subsidy Grant(x2)
  • Flexible Spending Account (you have one now, you sure you don't want it for 2010?)(x2)
  • 2009 incurred expense deadline to avoid forfeiture

New system will require new login:

  • univ ID logon, password is birthday mmddyy new pin (numbers only)
  • New system Works with Firefox, IE and Safari
  • Until 12/31 we have TWO systems at MyBenefits - old system to finish up and new system for new enrollment (it's pretty obvious - huge "2009" button for current and section for 2010).

To prevent our messages from going into your Junk folder (SPAM folder) add Stanford.benefits@acs-inc.com to your email white list.

Big changes to mental health care - especially Kaiser. UBH is going away. You have up to 6 months to find a solution.

Be sure to read the information on the cost changes insert in your newsletter. It explains the increase in premium plans.