Open Enrollment 2024 Video Transcript

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[0:00-5:43]

[Joe Williams, Senior Director of Benefits, Leave and Total WellBeing for UNC-Chapel Hill]

Every year here at UNC, we have Open Enrollment, your once-a-year opportunity to add, delete or make changes to the benefit plans that best fit the needs for you and your family.

I’m Joe Williams, Senior Director of Benefits, Leave Administration and Total WellBeing here at UNC-Chapel Hill. I want to share some details with you about this year’s Open Enrollment period, which runs Monday, September 30th through Friday, October 25th.

Just like in years past, you’ll make your benefits selections by logging in to ConnectCarolina Self Service and selecting the My Benefits tile.

Under the Benefits Enrollment menu option, you’ll see two portal links: one for the State Enrollment Portal and one for the UNC System Enrollment Portal.

You will use the State Enrollment Portal for choosing your 70/30 or 80/20 health insurance and doing your tobacco attestation. You will use the UNC System Enrollment Portal for enrolling in or making changes for everything else.

Once you have completed your selections, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the final screen to click to Save changes in the State portal and to Accept changes in the UNC portal.

After you complete your changes in each portal, we recommend to print a copy or use your phone to take a picture of your confirmation for both portals to keep for your records.

To make enrolling in your benefits as easy as possible, we’ve updated our UNC Open Enrollment website and created some guidance to assist you. Visit go.unc.edu/enroll to find everything you need to know for this year’s open enrollment.

The big change for 2025 is that the State Health Plan is moving away from Blue Cross Blue Shield and moving to Aetna as the new third-party administrator. I get asked lots of questions about this change, and let me assure you that you will not see anything different with the State Health Plan under Aetna.

The State Health Plan is a self-insured plan and the State Health Plan Board of Trustees decide what is covered, how much is paid, and the premium cost; Aetna only manages the payment processes, member services and claims.

For 2025, health insurance premiums are not increasing, and there are no changes to either of the health plans themselves.

Everyone enrolled in the State Health Plan for 2025 will receive new health insurance ID cards with the Aetna branding. To be sure the new cards make it to your mailbox, check that your address is updated in ConnectCarolina Self Service in the Personal Information tile, especially if you have moved recently.

For one of the steps in the State Enrollment Portal, you will select your Primary Care Provider by clicking on the link for the Aetna system. By selecting a Primary Care Provider, you will pay less for the copays when seeing that provider.

In 2025, Aetna will be providing some new services for State Health Plan members, including a teledoc platform for virtual visits, a 24-7 Ask a Nurse phone line and a new concierge phone service to avoid getting transferred around.

There are also a few updates to the NCFlex programs for next year. These are the state benefits such as dental, vision and flexible spending accounts.

Dental insurance premiums will have a small increase for 2025. For flexible spending accounts, if you want them in 2025, you must enroll during this open enrollment.

Remember that the benefits selections you choose during this October enrollment period will go into effect January 1st, 2025, and remain in effect through December 31st, 2025.

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[Williams]

Once the October enrollment period closes on the 25th, you cannot make changes until the next open enrollment period in October 2025, unless you experience a qualifying life event like death, birth, marriage or divorce outside of the open enrollment period.

For help with your open enrollment, visit our web pages at go.unc.edu/enroll.