Day: July 18, 2020

The following is the content of an email received by Rene Rodriguez from Lester Tong and posted here with Lester’s permission.

Rene,

This afternoon (July 17, 2020), 3:00pm till 5:00pm, I attended the “CalPERS Health Plans – Informational Zoom Meeting” (along with 218 others) presented by Katy Lyon.  I found it to be very helpful but with a lot of distractive questions from the audience.  This Zoom Meeting was recorded and will be made available for playback at the District’s Benefit website at

https://www.vcccd.edu/departments/human-resources/benefits

Look for the section “CalPERS MEDICAL”, then subsection “Retirees”.

Under the “CalPERS Live Webinar – Recording 6/30/2020” will be the Zoom meeting of 7/17/2020 (when they get it posted).  I would encourage all retirees to go to this website and review the CalPERS MEDICAL section.

Also, there was a chat session during the Zoom meeting and I saved all the chat to a file (see attached)

Also, to define the Retiree Tier 1 to 4 go to: https://www.vcccd.edu/departments/human-resources/benefits/retirement

Here are the highlights from my notes:

__ MES Vision & Delta Dental will remain the same and separate from CalPERS Medical.

__ Everyone must submit the CalPERS Application form by mail or FAX (800) 959-6545.

__ Only CalPERS has this form and it should be mailed directly to you (I got my packet on Jul 9).

__ Anthem CalPERS “Find Care tool” for a doctor, pharmacy, hospital, or urgent care center is at

https://www.anthem.com/ca/calpers/find-care

__ If you are over 65 and do not have both Medicare parts A & B, then you default to the “BASIC” or B Plan.

__ “2020 Health Benefit Summary” booklet compares all the health plans.  It was mailed to everyone.  Also can be downloaded from the District’s Benefit website (see link above).

__ For the “Retiree Monthly Contributions” in Ventura County, see Region 2 that was mailed to you.

__ CalPERS Health Benefit is by Calendar Year which is January 2021.  Therefore, deductibles amounts reset to zero in January.

__ Also deductibles amounts are reset in September 2020 when we start with CalPERS Health Benefit.

__ Medicare part B monthly premiums will be reimbursable with proof of payment starting September 2020.  Reimbursements will be handled by a 3rd party.  VCCCD can not pay these premiums directly as it is prohibited by law.

–Lester Tong

Classified Retiree, June 2016