This update covers the following topics:
- Retiree Insurance training videos and guides
- Plan price updates
- Adding new plans to employers
- Plan prices displaying the wrong value after rate updates
- New employer users cannot be added at this time
- Individual plan changes
- Rate holidays
Retiree Insurance training videos and guides
The MTRS has released 3 retiree insurance training videos that cover:
- Viewing and filtering insurance plan rates
- Updating plan rates (includes the optimal change method!)
- Stopping plans that are no longer offered
The Retiree Insurance in MyTRS guide and new videos are available online. We will also mail out printed copies of the training guide to any employer who needs one. Please let us know if you need a copy.
Plan price updates
When adding a price for a new period, it is CRITICAL to ADD a row to add the new cost. DO NOT OVERWRITE the price or dates of an existing row; doing this will cause the system to retroactively change existing plan costs, resulting in the refund of an entire year’s deductions.
Also, when adding a new price, be sure to sort by plan code then add each plan individually, hitting Apply each time you have edited the rate of your new row to ensure changes are processed correctly. For detailed instruction, please watch our 5-minute Retiree insurance—updating plan rates video before making your changes.
Please DO NOT enter a future stop date to your newly added rows. If you do, when the rate changes, you will need to manually add the coverage back to each individual retiree on that plan.
If you encounter an error referencing an incorrect start or stop date, please click CANCEL and email us at insuranceupdates@trb.state.ma.us so we can research your historical plan rates.
Adding new plans to employers
The MTRS will be able to add Dental, Vision, Optional Life and Basic Life plans to employers starting 7/11/2022. We will add plans in the order they were requested and may not be able to add them all this month. Please note, Optional life plans, will be our last priority as they affect one retiree at a time. We will reach out to each request individually as we add the plans to each employer. Please remember that you need to add this coverage, once added, to the applicable retiree by Friday 07/15/2022 at 6pm.
Plan prices displaying the wrong value after rate updates
Following a plan rate update, the wrong price often displays on individual retirees even when the right deduction will be taken. We are still looking into this issue, but it will not affect actual deduction amounts.
Deductions are based on the value in the rate table on the Employer Insurance Rates screen, not on what is displayed for an individual retiree. The deductions will be correct if the premiums on the Insurance Rates screen are correct for each plan.
New employer users cannot be added at this time
We have received several requests to add new employer users. At this time, the MTRS cannot add new employer users but we are working with our vendor to correct this issue and we will start granting access to new employer users as soon as the related issues are resolved. If your employer is without the ability to make changes, please send your changes to insuranceupdates@trb.state.ma.us with the subject “NO ACCESS” in all capital letters and we’ll expedite your request.
Individual plan changes
We have restored access to the Add/Change Coverage button on Retiree Insurance Selections, so employers can add, change or cancel coverage for retirees as needed directly in MyTRS.
Now that employers have access, please do not send these changes to insuranceupdates@trb.state.ma.us.
Rate holidays
If you need to enter a rate holiday, only add the discount rows for the holiday period prior to the retiree payroll processing period.
The day after the retiree payroll processes, add your rows to restore the full price for the period after the holiday.
Entering both rows at once can lead to processing and rate errors.
Questions?
If you have any questions, please send them to insuranceupdates@trb.state.ma.us.