Health Insurance

These numbers are current for 12/07 through 11/08.

We currently have Kaiser Permanente health insurance. Our group number is 11367.

To make a dental, vision, or medical appointment or to talk to an advice nurse, call Membership Services: 503-813-2000

Alternative Care: To find a practitioner, please visit this site: http://www.chpgroup.com/practitioner-search.php#practop

Online Account

Access our online account by going to http://employers.kaiserpermanente.org/kpweb/gatewaycas/entrypage.do and clicking on "Sign In". You can enroll and terminate coverage and pay the bill online.

Enrollment

Coverage begins on the first day of the month after the new employee is hired. We need to fill out all the forms and stuff less than 30 days after they've been hired.

Employees are eligible for the health plan if they work at least 17.5 hours/week on a regular basis, and are permanent workers.

Online

Have our new enrollee fill out and sign the enrollment.pdf form (located in fgstaff/health_insurance).
Log onto our account. Under "Member Functions", click on "Enroll Subscriber".
Fill out form and submit.
So that we have the signature on file, keep the form in the health insurance file in Richard's office.

Offline

Have our new enrollee fill out and sign the enrollment.pdf form (located in fgstaff/health_insurance; hard copies in the health insurance file).
Fax form to (503)813-4426 and (503)246-3816.
Send form to:

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest
Membership Administration
P.O. Box 921008
Fort Worth TX 76121-0008

Waiving Coverage

If someone waives coverage, they can't sign up for Kaiser until our next open enrollment month (generally November of every year), unless they've lost their non-Kaiser coverage through no fault of their own.

To waive coverage, print out the waive.pdf form located in fgstaff/health_insurance; hard copies in the health insurance file and have the waive-er fill it out.

Fax to (817)255-4420
Keep it on file in his/her real-world personnel file in the filing cabinet.

If we have over 10 employees (by Kaiser's definition: work at least 17.5 hours/week regularly, permanent), up to 25% of them can be without coverage at all. If the employee has coverage originating elsewhere, like on their partner's health insurance, they're not included in this count.

Termination

We can do this online.

Log onto our account.
Under "Member Functions", select "Subscriber List".
Select the outgoing employee with the radio button, then select "Terminate Coverage" from the Member Functions menu.
Fill out the form and press the "Submit" button.

We must also offer continuation to the outgoing employee. Please see below for instructions.

Continuation Option

By Oregon law, we must offer up to 6 months of continued health insurance for terminated/laid off/resigning employees. It should be offered as part of the Staff Exit Procedure. The employee would pay their own premium, copays, other fees, etc. Please see Health Insurance Continuation for instructions on how to offer this coverage.

Changing Addresses

If a covered staff member changes his or her home address, the Free Geek Kaiser representative must change their address in Kaiser's database. This can be done through Kaiser's website.

Yearly Census

There's a census form in the fgstaff/health_insurance directory. Kaiser wants us to fill one of these out every November so they know how many employees we have and how many of them have Kaiser and stuff.

Timeline

Some dates to remember. All approximate.

October 1 Begin considering new plan. Survey staff, review options.
November 15 Kaiser renewal due
December 1 Renewed/new plan starts
December Review new plan with staff/hand out new packets during staff meeting

Invoice Flow and Payment

Email reminders: should go to payables [at]
Paper invoices: are checked over for changes/errors, then filed in the Monkeyhouse
Bills are on autopay. Premiums for the month are paid on the last day of the previous month.