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► Interest Poll (Answer 1 Question to Indicate You want to Participate)
► Final 2023 Coverage & Monthly Premiums
► 2023 Open Enrollment Guide
It is almost Open Enrollment Season for American Pharmacies’ Mutual Employer Welfare Arrangement (MEWA) Health Benefit Plan, our group health insurance plan. But the deadline for your pharmacy to commit to participate in the program is Nov. 2. Your employees will be able to take part in our November open enrollment if we receive your decision to participate in the program by Nov. 2 and if you submit all required information prior to the start of open enrollment.
Our medical and dental/vision rates and plan designs for 2023 have been issued by United Healthcare. Along with medical, dental and vision coverage, there are life, AD&D and voluntary benefits (hospital indemnity, critical illness, accident, short-term disability and legal assistance). The 2023 Open Enrollment Benefit Guide contains details for all benefits offered through the APRx MEWA program. The dates for Open Enrollment for 2023 are November 21-December 5.
If you are interested in participating in the MEWA program for 2023, please take our quick interest poll or contact Rida Ashraf, APRx Benefits Director and Paralegal, by email at rashraf@aprx.org or APRx General Counsel Miguel Rodriguez at mrodriguez@aprx.org by Wednesday, Nov. 2. Rida or Miguel will reach out to you to obtain census information for your employees, provide additional information about the MEWA program and answer any questions you may have.
Providing health insurance to employees through small group plans can be volatile and expensive with high cost-sharing, premiums and deductibles. By joining the larger APRx group plan, your pharmacy and employees could see a significant reduction from your current insurance premiums. Check the 2023 Coverage and Monthly Premiums for our eight health plan offerings to see what your savings could look like.
Eligibility to Participate
To be eligible to participate in our benefits program for Plan Year 2023, your pharmacy must:
- Be an American Pharmacies member in good standing as of Dec. 31, 2022, and throughout 2023.
- Have 75% participation of your full-time eligible employees (30+ hours) in the medical plan who do not have health coverage elsewhere (e.g., Medicare, spouse, parent).
- Contribute at least $390 monthly toward each enrolled employee’s medical premium.
These requirements exist to protect you and all other MEWA participants from adverse selection -- The participation requirement allows a larger pool of healthy individuals to join, which protects the loss ratio and prevents big increases in premiums. The employer contribution makes medical benefits affordable for more employees, which also encourages a larger pool of participants.
Achieving Self-Funded Status
As envisioned since the inception of our plan, our eventual goal is to attain self-funded status. It is a common desire among all community pharmacies to control our own destiny and break free from PBM strangleholds, and a self-funded MEWA Program is an important step in this direction.
We've held discussions with prospective partners throughout the year on achieving self-funded status and we are closer than ever to this goal. We'll share our findings soon in an on-demand webinar, and we'll also release a separate, on-demand webinar in the coming weeks that explains the 2023 Plan Options, MEWA program requirements, new prescription drug list (PDL) changes, and how to use the portal for our new enrollment vendor, GoCo.
Simplified Enrollment and Call Center Support
We use an online enrollment system to ease the burdens of enrollment and daily administration. We also will have a call center to help APRx members understand benefit options and choose the best plan for their personal situation.
HURRY -- Sign-up Deadline is Nov. 2
The deadline to join the MEWA is quickly approaching!
What Our Pharmacy Owners Are Saying About the Program
"Very pleased with the health plan, the employees are loving it."
- Paula Perrone, Perrone Pharmacy | Fort Worth, TX
"They cut the premium in half and I have saved quite a bit of money."
- Chuck Eubanks, TylerRx Pharmacy | Tyler, TX
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