Vol. XVIII, Issue 37

October 26, 2021

Reminder: Annual Election Webinars Coming Up Soon

Wespath is offering two informational events about annual election for all HealthFlex participants and we invite you to share details about them both with your members.

Wespath will host an annual election webinar October 27 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Central time, to explain how to complete 2022 elections and offer tips for making election choices. The goal of the webinar is to equip attendees with the information they need to elect the best plans for their situation.

New this year, Wespath is partnering with HealthEquity® to host a webinar that will explain the benefits of plans paired with HSAs (the H1500, H2000 and H3000). The event is November 4 from noon to 12:30 p.m., Central time. HSA plans can reduce the cost of insurance each month and they allow you to build up funds for future health care expenses. HealthEquity is the company that administers the HealthFlex HSAs.

Register for the webinars here.

All the Annual Election Material, All in One Place

We have shared several annual election resources in recent editions of the HealthFlex Express and now you can find all of them in one spot on the Extranet.

After you log into the Extranet, click on "HealthFlex and Virgin Pulse Tools & Resources." The annual election toolkit, the plan comparisons handout, HealthFlex videos and more can be found at the top of the page.

Participant Communication: Targeted Letter About Pharmacy Benefit Changes

OptumRx® will be mailing a letter to approximately 300 HealthFlex participants who will no longer have costs paid by their co-pay cards for specialty medications count toward their deductible and out-of-pocket max beginning in January 2022. Co-pay cards have become increasingly popular with high-cost specialty medications.

To be clear, participants can still use the co-pay cards on their specialty prescriptions. However, as explained in the letter, if a participant pays $400 and uses a $100 co-pay card to purchase a drug that costs $500, then only $400 will be counted against the HealthFlex plan’s deductible and out-of-pocket max beginning in 2022. Under the existing arrangement, $500 would count toward the participant’s deductible and out-of-pocket max in this scenario.

To learn more about the changes involving co-pay cards, we encourage you to review slides 14, 18 and 19 in the Administrative Updates presentation from the recent HealthFlex Summit.

ICYMI: Use Internet Explorer and Virgin Pulse? It's Time for a New Browser

Participants who use the Internet Explorer web browser will not have access to the Virgin Pulse® website beginning March 1, 2022. Virgin Pulse made this decision after Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer will be discontinued June 15, 2022.

"Virgin Pulse has proactively decided to focus our efforts and enhancements on browsers that will continue to be active and updated in the foreseeable future," the company said in a statement.

Starting November 1, when individuals who use Internet Explorer log into Virgin Pulse, they will see a banner message about the upcoming change.

Virgin Pulse Users Need to Approve New Membership Agreement

Starting on November 1, Virgin Pulse will prompt individuals to accept the updated Virgin Pulse membership agreement the next time they log in.

For a list of the changes made in the updated agreement, click here.


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a general agency of The United Methodist Church

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