Administration of UC s Dental Insurance Program to Move to Anthem

The Board of Trustees today voted to allow a proposed contract for administration of University of Cincinnati employee dental benefits to be finalized.

The new agreement will mean that, as of Jan. 1, 2016, the new administrator of UC’s self-funded dental plans will be Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Humana is the current vendor. (You may recall that as of  Jan. 1, 2015,

Anthem became the new administrator

of UC’s medical and pharmacy insurance programs.

The dental plan benefits will remain the same in 2016, with

Anthem

providing administrative services that include payment of claims, network access, and an online portal. The online portal provided by Anthem, which already includes medical and pharmacy information, will now include dental-related information.

“The goal of the vendor change is to continue to offer employees and their families quality benefits that are sustainable,” according to Elizabeth Aumann, director of benefits.

The new three-year contract with Anthem was competitively bid and will allow the university to avoid an estimated $660,000 in expected costs had the current contract with Humana been extended another three years. The new contract with Anthem is renewable for up to three one-year periods after 2018.

The contract will come with performance guarantees from Anthem. In addition, it includes Anthem’s offer to make an annual $25,000 investment in the university’s new voluntary wellness initiative,

Be Well UC

.

More information related to the vendor change will be posted to the Human Resources website in coming months.

Employees will receive new dental plan membership cards in late December 2015, after the annual enrollment period from Nov. 1-30. Employees will receive additional information related to the vendor change prior to and during the annual enrollment period.

Any employee with questions about the change in administration of the dental program should contact Human Resources at

HROneStop@uc.edu

.