Oct. 16, 2001

HRS Announces Fall Benefits Fair

Five-Week Enrollment Period, Eight-Day Benefit Fair to Accommodate Employees with GWUHP

By Vance Beggs

GW’s traditional Fall Benefits Open Enrollment Period will begin Monday, Oct. 29, and continue for five weeks through Friday, Nov. 30. Eight Benefits Fair days are scheduled at the Marvin Center to give faculty, staff, and retirees the opportunity to speak directly with insurance representatives and retirement investment counselors.

According to Susan B. Kaplan, associate vice president for human resources, “This fall’s open enrollment has special significance with the recent announcement of the discontinuance of options offered by The George Washington University Health Plan (GWUHP). More than 2,500 employees and retirees will have to subscribe to a new health care plan effective Jan. 1, 2002.

“We have intensely focused on providing alternatives to individuals currently enrolled in GWUHP,” adds Kaplan. “This is complicated by an environment in which health care costs are rising significantly.

“In response to this challenge, we have scheduled what we believe to be the longest open enrollment period in our history, and have basically tripled the number of organized Fair Days,” Kaplan continues. “The communications program also will include a special direct-to-your-home mailing of all open enrollment materials, an E-mail reminder, and the posting of all materials to the HRS Web site. To accommodate the large numbers required to enroll in a new group health insurance plan, one-half of the fair days will be conducted in the Ball room of the Marvin Center.”

All fair days will be held in the Marvin Center from 9 am–4 pm. See page 9 of this issue of ByGeorge! for room locations,. Dates and locations also are listed in the Open Enrollment Letter and are posted on the HRS Web site at www.gwu.edu/~hrs.

 

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu