Below is the letter mailed to employees' homes in June 2024.

Dear employee:

One of MNPS’s top priorities has been — and will always be — offering you and your family best-in-class health insurance coverage, and that includes keeping your premiums affordable.

As part of that commitment, MNPS pays 75% of your premium costs and you pay 25%. That split will continue for the 2024-2025 school year. However, as costs for our plan — and across the entire health care industry — have increased significantly, your share of the premium will also increase effective July 1, 2024. Additionally, your cost-share for some services will increase effective January 1, 2025.

Health plan premiums (effective July 1, 2024)

Depending on how often you receive a paycheck and whether you cover family members, your premiums will increase $7-$37 per paycheck. See 2024-2025 biweekly rates below.

Premium deduction schedule (effective July 1, 2024)

We are upgrading to a new HR management system that will support different premium deduction schedules for salaried and non-salaried employees.

Because our current HR system did not support different premium deduction schedules, health plan premiums had to be prorated the same way for salaried and non-salaried employees. Because non-salaried employees do not work/get paid during fall/winter breaks, we created a “premium holiday” so those employees would not have to mail in premium checks when they were not scheduled to work.

Our new upgraded HR system can support different premium deduction schedules. So going forward, non-salaried staff will continue to have two premium holidays, while salaried employees will have an equal amount deducted from every check. This new premium deduction schedule will make your take-home amount more predictable and consistent while also lessening the impact of the premium increase. Note: The premium holiday didn’t change the total amount paid, only how the total amount was prorated.

Medical plan cost-share (effective January 1, 2025)

The annual deductible will increase from $300 to $500.
Your coinsurance will increase from 10% to 15%. In other words, the medical plan will pay 85% of the cost of care after you meet the deductible.
Office visit copays will increase from $30 to $35 (primary care) and $40 to $50 (specialist care).
Brand name prescription copays (30-day supply) will increase from $25 to $35 (preferred brand) and from $80 to $100 (non-preferred brand). Generic drug copays will remain $5.
Medical and prescription drug out-of-pocket (OOP) maximums are being combined into a single OOP max of $3,600/person and $7,200/family. This combined amount is less than the total of our current individual OOP maximums.

What’s not changing

Our commitment to providing excellent coverage at an affordable rate is not changing:

All services received at the MNPS Health Care Centers will remain zero cost to you.
Mental health services will continue to be available at no cost to you.
Medications for certain chronic conditions will remain a $0 copay.
You’ll continue to have access to our many wellness programs at no additional cost (e.g., Foodsmart, Omada, Virta, Cylinder, Vanderbilt MyHealth bundles).

We believe offering generous benefits makes it easier for you to get the care you need, which, in turn, helps you and your family members stay healthy — and that lowers costs for everyone.

Still have questions? Call Employee Benefit Services at 615-259-8607, or send an email to benefits@mnps.org.

Sincerely,

Health plan changes for 2024-25

David Hines, Executive Director of Benefits