- Group Insurance Commission
BOSTON—February 8, 2019
The Group Insurance Commission (GIC) voted unanimously to approve proposed benefit design recommendations for FY2020 at its Commission meeting on February 7, 2019.
Highlights of the updated benefits approved yesterday include:
- Medicare: No benefit changes. All carriers and products remain the same.
- Non-Medicare: All carriers, products, yearly deductibles remain the same.
- One benefit design change: A lower co-pay of $150 for members who utilize freestanding facilities for eye procedures and GI endoscopies. Co-pays for procedures at hospital outpatient facilities would remain the same at $250 this fiscal year.
- Provider Tiering: Continuing to migrate from individual to group-based tiering for all specialists, aligning with existing group-based tiering by some GIC carriers.
- Projected year over year average premium increase of 3.3%. This is in line with recent years where the average increase for GIC members has typically ranged between 3% and 4%, and is lower than current marketplace commercial trends of 5% to 7% average premium increases.
The GIC will vote on medical and pharmacy product rates and premiums at its February 28 Commission meeting. The GIC will notify key stakeholders about FY2020 benefit information prior to the start of the Annual Enrollment period, which runs from Wednesday, April 3 to Wednesday, May 1, 2019.