Benefits. Connection. Save $60 Monthly. Thinking about Retiring Where do you begin? TO RETIRE AND CONTINUE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE

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1 June 9, 2010 Issue 2, Volume 1 Information link for your benefit. Benefits Connection Thinking about Retiring Where do you begin? If you are a teacher, administrator, supervisor, clerical worker, paraprofessional, nurse, and campus police officer, AND if you are employed 50% or more, you are automatically enrolled in the Teachers Retirement System (TRS). Continued on page 2, column 1 ARE YOU HAVING A BABY?? FIRST OF ALL, CONGRATULATIONS! Save $60 Monthly Tobacco Surcharge Removal Did you know that you can remove your tobacco surcharge from your medical insurance after quitting smoking for 60 days? The tobacco surcharge may be removed by completing the tobacco cessation requirements. Continued on page 3, column 1 YOU MUST CONTACT THE BENEFITS OF- FICE AT TO OBTAIN ANY INFORMATION REGARDING PROCEDURES TO INITIATE A LEAVE OF ABSENCE. ONCE YOU REQUEST THE LEAVE OF ABSENCE, WE WILL SEND YOU THE NECESSARY PAPERWORK FOR YOUR PHYSICIAN AND YOU TO COMPLETE. Continued on page 4 Inside this Issue: Having a Baby, FMLA Optional Spending Account Paying for Benefits on Leave Retiring Tobacco Surcharge Removal, Cessation Classes TO RETIRE AND CONTINUE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE CONTACT INFO Mailing Address: 514 Glover Street Marietta, GA Physical Address: 590 Commerce Park Dr. Suite 150 Marietta, GA Phone: Fax: Leave Fax: benefits@cobbk12.org You must have continuous coverage from active to retiree status for you and your dependent. Your coverage will roll over if you are participating in the ERS, TRS, or PSERS retirement systems. Upon retirement and age 65 Medicare becomes primary. Continued on page 3, column 1 Page 1 of 5

2 Thinking about Retiring You are eligible to retire when you have one of the following: 1. Completion of 30 years of creditable service - regardless of your age; or 2. Completion of 10 years of creditable service, and be age 60 or older. There is a third option which will allow you to retire early. If you have an active TRS account, you may retire after completion of at least 25 years of service and be less than age 60. However, your monthly benefit will be permanently reduced by an early retirement penalty. Please contact a TRS representative to fully explain the penalty calculation to you. If you terminate your employment and if you don t have 10 years of service, you may apply for a refund of contributions and interest. How do I retire? You will need to submit two forms to CCSD, Benefit Office as part of the retirement application process, before your application can be processed. Please send the Sick Leave Certification form and the Retirement Certification Report to the Benefit Office, to the attention to Belinda Goodman-Ayewoh. All other TRS forms you will need to send directly to TRS. How do I get a retirement application? You may apply for retirement online at via your TRS account. Completing and submitting the application online will expedite the processing of your retirement. You can also call TRS at or you can get an application from the Benefits Office. Can I keep my health insurance? If you are eligible and wish to participate in the SHBP after retirement, you will be automatically enrolled with the same coverage as when you were actively employed. TRS will deduct the monthly premium from your benefit payment. Can TRS members use sick leave towards retirement? As a member of TRS, yes, you may establish sick leave credit at the time of retirement provided that you have a combined minimum of 60 days of unused sick leave from your current and all previous Georgia employers, and that you earned the sick leave credit while in a TRS covered position. Employees who are not eligible for membership in the TRS must establish membership with Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) as a condition of employment. If you are a school bus driver, food service employee, maintenance or custodial employee AND you work 60% or more, you have PSERS. You are eligible to retire when you have one of the following: 1. Normal Retirement = at least 10 years of credible service and be age Early Retirement = at least 10 years of credible service and be age 60. For Disability Retirement, you must have a minimum of 15 years of credible service and be totally and permanently disabled from doing your job. A Medical Board will approve or disapprove your application. If you terminate your employment and if you don t have 10 years of service, you can get a refund of your contributions and interest. You can leave the money with Employees Retirement System (ERS), in case you return to State service and again become a contributing member. However, your account will not accrue further interest if you are not a contributing member of ERS. How do I retire? You will need to submit a PSERS retirement application to the CCSD Benefits Office. If you have already chosen a retirement, you should request a retirement application from the CCSD Benefit office. The application contains retirement information as well as all the necessary forms. How do I get a retirement application? You can download an application from or you can call PSERS at or you can pick up an application at the CCSD Benefit Office. Once you have completed the application, you must submit it to CCSD Benefits Office. Can I keep my health insurance? If you are immediately retiring with a monthly benefit, you can keep your medical insurance. For other questions about health insurance, contact the Department of Community Health at Can PSERS members use sick leave towards retirement? No. This is not available for PSERS employees. What if my retirement check is not enough to cover my health insurance? State Health Benefit Plan would bill you directly. Continued on column 2 Page 2 of 5

3 TO RETIRE AND CONTINUE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE RETIREES / MEDICARE When you retire and become eligible for Medicare because of age 65 or disability, you should enroll in Medicare. Medicare includes Part A (hospitalization) Part B (provider services) Part D (prescription drugs). You may apply for coverage 3 months prior to turning age 65. You should contact the Social Security Administration or visit for general questions or further information. STATE HEALTH BENEFIT PLAN / SHBP MEDICARE POLICY All retirees and their spouses eligible for Medicare because of age or disability will need to enroll in one of the two Medicare Advantage programs with prescription drugs plans offered through United Health Care and Cigna. Retirees enrolling in these plans will continue to receive the State contribution to the cost of premiums. To enroll in one of these options you must have Medicare Part B already. You may contact State Health Benefit Plan at or visit Save $60 Monthly Tobacco Surcharge Removal Details for the 2010 Tobacco Surcharge Policy and Classes and the Tobacco Cessation Affidavit Form are available at the Georgia Department of Community Health website, under State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) - at channel_title/0,2094, _ ,00.html Note that your paperwork needs to come to the Benefits Office first (in order for your premiums to be adjusted), and then we send the forms directly to SHBP. No refunds in surcharges can be given. Intentional misrepresentation in response to surcharge questions will have significant consequences. You will automatically lose State Health Benefit Plan coverage for 12 months beginning on the date that a false response is discovered. PAYING FOR YOUR BENEFITS WHILE ON LEAVE OF ABSENCE An employee can continue benefit coverage while on a leave of absence. Once short term days are exhausted, an employee will be on leave without pay from Cobb County and will not collect a monthly or bi-weekly paycheck. In this case, the employee will receive a bill from the Leave Dept. for their benefits. Payments can be made directly to CCSD for benefit coverage for a maximum of 12 months while on leave without pay. While on Short Term Leave, you are required to continue paying for benefit coverage. However, when you go on Long Term Leave, you have the option to discontinue benefit coverage with CCSD. We currently accept checks or money orders as methods of payment for benefit coverage. Your payment must be made for the amount of the bill. No partial payments will be accepted. Payments must be received in the Benefit Office by the 15 th of each month for continued coverage, with no break in service. We will keep track of payments made. You will NOT receive a bill each month, however. After the initial billing, it is the employee s responsibility to keep up with payments due. Once the employee is released to return to work, deductions for benefit coverage will resume to be deducted from the monthly or bi-weekly paychecks. Page 3 of 5

4 ARE YOU HAVING A BABY?? THIS PAPERWORK IS TIME SENSITIVE AND MUST BE RETURNED TO OUR OFFICE WITHIN A CERTAIN TIMEFRAME. WHAT WILL HAPPEN ONCE I GO ON LEAVE? You are expected to work up until you deliver your baby, unless your physician certifies that you can no longer work. All dates are based on your estimated due date. Your leave will begin either at delivery or upon certification from your physician that you can no longer work. Once you deliver, please contact the Benefits Office within 5 days to confirm date of delivery and last date worked. If qualified for the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), you will be allowed to take up to 12 work weeks of unpaid time. FMLA time runs concurrently with any accrued sick time, short term disability or full deduct (no pay from Cobb County) time. HOW WILL MY DAYS BE CALCULATED WHILE ON MATERNITY LEAVE? You will be using your accrued short term sick leave days for the duration of your disability period (typically 6 weeks for a vaginal delivery, or 8 weeks for a Caesarean delivery). WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH SHORT TERM LEAVE DAYS FOR WORKDAYS MISSED DURING MY 6 OR 8 WEEKS OF MATERNITY LEAVE? If you chose to take longer than the 6 or 8 weeks of disability period, you will not be able to use any accrued sick leave time, or the MetLife Disability Insurance. Any additional time off will be Full Deduct (no pay from Cobb County). If you are not enrolled in the MetLife Short term disability insurance, and you do not have enough short term sick leave days to cover your disability period, you will be full deduct (no pay from Cobb County) and you will be responsible for paying for your insurance premiums directly to the Benefits Office during your leave of absence. For less than annual employees, if my baby is born in the summer and my 6 weeks is not up when school starts, how does my maternity leave work, with or without FMLA time? Your disability period begins the day you have your baby regardless of whether your baby is born on a workday or not. The disability period is continuous for 6 or 8 weeks. If you are still considered disabled at the time that school starts, you would remain out of work due to your disability. If you are qualified for FMLA, you would be able to use that time starting the first contracted work day of the new school year. HOW IS MY SUMMER MONTHLY PAY AFFECTED WHEN I AM OUT ON LEAVE? If you have over 50% of the month on full deduct, the payroll department will adjust the payroll checks that remain, upon your return to work to reflect the days you were full deducted for the scheduled days that you did not work. Please contact the CCSD payroll department at to determine the amounts of your remaining checks. Once you exhaust your sick leave days, if eligible and enrolled, you may apply for the MetLife Short Term Disability insurance. To do this you must call your Benefits leave representative. This will allow you, if approved, to receive compensation during your 6 to 8 weeks maternity disability period. Continued on column 2 Page 4 of 5

5 For Optional Spending Account Participants In an effort to ease the frustration sometimes associated with the completion and submission of the CCSD Optional Spending forms for medical and dependent care, the Benefits Office has designed a form that can be completed online and that automatically calculates the totals for you! This form enhances the process in a couple of ways; it provides the opportunity to have clear description entries so that form processing isn t delayed due to illegible descriptions and it automatically calculates the totals for you. The new form can be found on the CCSD website, Benefits Page, Forms Section, Optional Spending. Simply click on the link, complete the form, print and sign the form, attach your receipts and forward all to the Benefits Office by the appropriate deadline for processing. We hope that this enhancement will help you with the optional spending process. As always, should you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact either Belinda Goodman-Ayewoh (belinda.goodmanayewoh@cobbk12.org) or Princess Bussey (princess.bussey@cobbk12.org) with any questions. We are happy to assist you. Thank you! FYI Link - Do you know that the Benefits web page is updated with new and important Benefits information? Go to Employment, Benefits or click on centraloffice/hr/benefits/ Benefits Office CONTACTS Princess Bussey Benefits Manager Debbie Culhane General/Benefits Meetings/New Hires/TSA Linda Cuomo Benefits Specialist Billing Belinda Goodman-Ayewoh Retirement Specialist Optional Spending/Flexible Benefits/Retirement Beverly Gromer (formerly Wilson) General/TSA Cindi Hays Lead Leave Leaves, Last names ending in A-L Nadia Reis Family Status Changes/Deductions/Payments Denise Taliaferro Leave Leaves, Last names ending in M-Z Page 5 of 5