The
Independent, Oct. 6, 2011
Lab
sets Open Enrollment Meetings; No Briefings
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has scheduled public "Open
Enrollment" meetings in Livermore and Tracy on November 9 and 10 so that
retirees who are able to attend can learn about its 2012 medical insurance
programs.
The November 9 public meeting will be held at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore
at a time to be announced. The November 10 meeting will be held in Tracy
at a place and time to be announced. The Laboratory will also send
printed booklets and other material to retiree homes.
At the same time, the Laboratory declined for the first time to brief its
Retiree Association, which in the past has helped provide information and
assistance to members who live too far away or are too unhealthy to travel to
local meetings.
It has also advised the Association that it will not even answer questions
about health care programs following the public meetings. If retirees are
confused about medical benefits or how to sign up for or change programs,
according to emails from the Laboratory, they will have to ask one of the
organizations that administers the programs, Aon Hewitt or Extend Health.
For years, at the Retiree Association's October luncheon meeting, the
Laboratory has provided speakers to summarize changes in the coming year's
health plans and details of how to renew or change plans. Recognizing the
Association's role in keeping retirees informed, it encouraged those
approaching retirement to consider joining the organization in order to stay
abreast of health program developments.
Retirees say that the Laboratory's new position has contributed to the sense
among many retirees that the Laboratory's new contract manager, a for-profit
consortium that took over from the University of California in 2008, has turned
its back on them.
The consortium, called Lawrence Livermore National Security, offers medical
insurance that is consistent with industrial standards, which the retirees find
more complicated, less reliable and in many cases more expensive than the UC
system they formerly belonged to.
Part of the retiree disenchantment with the system is the remoteness of the
health program administrators, Aon Hewitt and Extend Health, which handle
health plans from many companies around the U.S. and often can't distinguish
the former employees of a national defense laboratory from retirees of a
company that sells car parts.
Learning that they will now have to get further information from these
administrators instead of being helped by the Laboratory where they once worked
seems like adding insult to injury.
Whether the University's health programs continue to seem attractive by comparison to the consortium's is an open question. According to new reports, the University's budget is under pressure. UC health benefits may b among the programs that will suffer.