Hunterdon County Updates - New Health Plan

Hunterdon County members in both the Rank and File and Supervisory units will have health benefits open enrollment in the month of October. During this open enrollment we have a new plan option with lower employee paycheck contributions. The new plan is called "NJ Direct 2019 PPO" and is modeled off the NJ Direct 15 plan.

NJ Direct 2019 PPO is a voluntary option. Members can choose to switch to this plan or you can keep your current plan. This is just another option in the menu. 

However, unlike the other NJ Direct plans, NJ Direct 2019 has a lower employee contribution that is based on a percentage of pay rather than chapter 78. Only salary is used to determine our contribution for health insurance with NJ Direct 2019.

Chapter 78 calculates employee contributions as a percentage of premium based on your salary - so both salary and premiums are factored into how much we pay each paycheck for our healthcare. 

NJ Direct 2019 PPO has slightly higher co-pays for prescription drugs and lower reimbursement to out-of-network providers. So, basically, members save money on their paycheck deductions every pay period, but there are slightly higher prescriptions and out of network services are reimbursed at a lower rate. 

Like any healthcare decision - do your homework and calculate your costs. If you do not use prescription drugs or out of network services, NJ Direct 2019 PPO is excellent medical and hospitalization coverage at a lower cost than NJ Direct 10 or NJ Direct 15. 

If you have a large family and/or use your health insurance or prescription coverage a lot, you may want to stick with your current plan if it is working for you.

Please contact the Local for more information.