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Open Enrollment, the annual period when University faculty, staff and other eligible individuals make their benefit choices for the coming year, begins Monday, Nov. 2, and continues through Friday, Nov. 13.

There are a few changes—and some good news—for benefits for 2016:

• After a comprehensive review of employees’ medical contribution rates, the University has made the decision to absorb an even greater portion of the total cost of health care for 2016 in order to keep employee contributions more affordable. While national health trends are increasing by 6 to 8 percent for 2016, the University will hold the contribution increase to less than 5 percent.
• There will be no copayment or coinsurance increases for the University’s medical, dental and vision plans.
• OptumRx, a national, best-in-class pharmacy benefit manager, has been selected as the new administrator of the prescription benefit plan, replacing Express Scripts (formerly Medco) as of Jan. 1, 2016.
• Rates for supplemental life insurance are decreasing by 25 percent.
• Employee contributions for dental, vision, dependent life, supplemental AD&D and voluntary LTD coverage will have no rate increases. Please remember that this is the second year of the two-year plan commitment for dental and vision.

A summary , information sessions, benefit newsletters, and other news and information is available on the new Open Enrollment website——just launched by the Office of Human Resources.

During Open Enrollment those eligible to participate in a flexible spending account for health care or dependent care must decide how much they will contribute to each account for 2016.

Open Enrollment will be conducted online through MySlice beginning Nov. 2. If you have any questions about Open Enrollment or benefits, please contact the Human Resources Service Center at 315.443.4042 or hrservic@syr.edu.