The purpose of this action is to allow the membership to have additional time to consider other opportunities stemming from the ACA. We will continue on the current benefit platform that participating members and their staffs are accustomed to until December 1, 2014. Deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums will remain on a calendar year accumulation.

The renewal for the aforementioned plan year is complete and it will be included in your October billing statements, which should be received by your office in mid September. Contained within this information will be two rate sheets. One will be for the month of December only, while the second will be for the remainder of the plan year. The reason for two different rate sheets is that the ACA states plan participants must pay a reinsurance fee effective 1-1-14, which for our plan equates to $9.12 per policy holder, per month. This reinsurance fee is not avoidable by moving the plan year up one month, so December's premiums will not have this fee included in them, yet the remaining 11 months of the year will.