The Group Insurance Office of the Department of Administration
recently announced that Blue Cross will have an online form
available to help state employees complete the new enrollment
process. Open enrollment begins Monday and concludes May 28.
The form should be accessible from the Blue Cross web site
http://www.bcidaho.com
by the first day of open enrollment, May 1. Because
the state is making a transition to a new health insurance
provider, effective July 1, all participating state employees
will need to complete an enrollment form by the end of May.
Choices made under the Regence BlueShield plan, which expires
on June 30, do not automatically rollover to the new plan.
The new enrollment form which includes options for
dental, vision and mental health services should take
between five and 25 minutes to complete, depending on the
complexity of an employees need. Several employees from
ITD, including field staff and administrative staff, have
helped to test the on-line application. Everyone involved
indicated that it was fairly easy to use.
ITD management supports the need of employees to enroll during
work hours from their worksite. Because the online form will
be available at the Blue Cross site, enrollees also have the
option of completing the process from home or other locations.
They also may choose the traditional paper form to indicate
their health insurance options. Although the paper version
is sufficient, there are compelling advantages to using the
online enrollment process. Benefits of the electronic process
include: