The PEF Membership Benefits Program provides PEF members group rates to a variety of services including term and universal life insurance, short-term and long-term disability insurance, auto and homeowner’s insurance, retirement accounts, car-rental discounts, cellular-phone service, discount tickets to amusement parks, and travel services, to name a few. The PEF Membership Benefits Program remains committed to providing the highest quality plans and services at the lowest possible cost.
Travel Agency – PEF Travel Corp.
The travel agency was purchased in 1994 based on the interest of PEF members to have preferred travel services. The gross income of the agency for the fiscal year beginning June 1, 1998 has increased over 20 percent compared to last year.
The full-service agency and its professional staff offer the lowest prices available on leisure packages, tours and cruises. PEF Travel Corp. offers rebates to members and does not charge service fees. Discounted trips to domestic and foreign destinations are available through arrangements with travel wholesalers. As more members use PEF Travel Corp. the discounts can be increased, improving the benefits and savings.
Major Accomplishments
The Membership Benefits Program trustees have just completed a bidding process that has resulted in the selection of the Hartford Life Insurance Company as the new carrier for our Term Life and Short Term Disability Insurance. Hartford Life Insurance Company was the lowest bidder while matching our current plan features.
Competitive bids were requested because service from the previous carrier was unacceptable and efforts to effect changes were not addressed by them. In addition, the trustees decided that because the plan had not been bid since its inception in 1979, that the bidding process could have a favorable effect on rates. Their assumption proved to be correct. Term-life-insurance rates were reduced 20 percent for PEF members’ coverage with or without the waiver-of-premium option. Short-term-disability-insurance rates were reduced by 5 percent, resulting in a total saving of $1.5 million dollars annually, for both programs.
Utilizing the same carrier for both short- and long-term disability has enabled us to coordinate the two programs and offer a new 26-week short-term-disability plan. For a lesser premium, an individual can purchase insurance to cover them during the long-term-disability six-month waiting period. An added advantage to the member is that when a short-term claim is filed there is an easier transition to the long-term-disability claim. If the disability extends beyond six months, the claim simply continues with no lapse in the receipt of benefit checks.
Besides the significant rate reduction, the change in insurance carriers impacts our term-life-insurance plan in other positive ways. Most significant is the increased level of coverage now available. PEF members can now insure themselves for an amount equal to four times their annual earnings. Additionally, the living benefits option now allows an insured to receive up to 80 percent of the face value of the policy when there is an anticipated life expectancy of 12 months or less. This is an increase from the 75 percent available under the former Aetna contract. The balance of the policy continues to be payable to the beneficiary at the time of death.
To allow all members to access these improved plans, an open enrollment is in progress beginning October 1 and ending December 31, 1998. The open enrollment allows current participants to increase their coverage and new participants to enter the plans without having to answer any medical questions. A mailing announcing the open enrollment was sent to the entire membership in mid-September.
Long Term Disability Insurance Program
PEF members to save $165,000 in December 1998
The Long Term Disability Insurance continues to be underwritten by the Hartford. Because of positive claims experience, the program was able to negotiate a "premium holiday" in December whereby PEF members will not be charged a premium for one pay period. This aggregate premium totals $165,000 in savings. More importantly, beginning April 1, 1999, a new rate schedule will be implemented resulting in decreased premium payments for all Long-Term Disability participants.
In addition, effective September 1, 1998, three new enhancements were added to the Long Term Disability Program at no additional cost to the members:
Universal Life
Participation in the Universal Life Insurance program has continued to grow since the introduction of Transamerica Life of New York as the provider in 1996. To date, we have 1,408 participants in this program.
To assist us in monitoring this relatively new program and the agent network, Membership Benefits instituted a satisfaction survey procedure. All new program participants are sent a survey requesting input on the product, service and overall satisfaction with the program. The results of the survey are continuously tabulated and shared with the insurance brokers and the Membership Benefits trustees. The results of the survey have shown that the current participants are satisfied with this benefit.
Marketing efforts during this past year have included a combination of statewide mailings, lunch-and-learn meetings, Communicator advertisements and on-site visits. The next full-membership mailing is scheduled for January 1999.
Private Retirement Annuity Program
The Private Retirement Annuity (PRA) Program has continued to increase in participation during the past year. Many members have requested information on this tax-advantaged retirement-investment program.
In January 1998, the PRA Program introduced the ROTH IRA to the membership on a payroll-deductible basis. This enhancement received a significant response from the membership.
Promotion of this valuable benefit will continue this year with Communicator advertisements and membership informational meetings.
Cellular Phone Program
The contract with Cellular One in the Albany area was bid. Cellular One was awarded the contract and will continue to offer the existing plan. It will, however, offer an enhancement of a total of $.13 per minute for calls made during nights and weekends, for one year. This offer will be made to all PEF members who have less than three months remaining on their service commitment, new activations and PEF members out-of-contract (members who continued coverage beyond a year without signing a new contract).
PEF Legal Service Plan
Effective September 1, 1998, the annual fee for the PEF Legal Service Plan became $49.50 if paid through payroll deduction, or $55.00 if paid by check or credit card. This slight increase is the first increase in this plan in over five years.
Assault, Trauma and Attack Program (ATAC)
Effective September 15, 1998, the PEF Assault, Trauma and Attack Program (ATAC) is offering a higher benefit level, $2,500, for fractures resulting from assaults, rapes or assaults that require two consecutive nights of hospitalization due to injuries occurring while on the job.
All other injuries that result from an assault while on the job will be eligible for a $1,000 benefit. A benefit of $2,000 is paid for an assault that involves the flinging of human-waste materials. As in the past, all conditions of the policy must be met in order to be eligible for payment.
Since Membership Benefits currently provides a higher Accidental Death and Dismemberment benefit of $15,000 for each dues-paying member, the accidental-death-and-dismemberment coverage included in the ATAC policy has been reduced to $1,000. The Membership Benefits Program trustees were faced with the a huge premium increase to over $260,000 annually if no changes were made to the ATAC program. So, in order to continue to provide this coverage, it was necessary to make the above changes.
NOTE: This program was also bid out and the previous carrier, Jardine Group Services was the lowest bidder.
Amusement Park Discounts
In the 1998 season, we added Santa's Workshop in Wilmington, New York to our amusement-park-discount program.
The amusement-park-discount program is extremely popular with the membership. A breakdown of the number of consignment tickets sold by Membership Benefits is as follows: Great Escape 3,342; Canada’s Wonderland 28; Darien Lake 135; Seabreeze 18; Water Safari 457; Waterslide World 213; Riverside 124. In addition to the consignment tickets, we also distributed several hundred coupons for Santa's Workshop, Dorney Park, Rye Playland, Zoom Flume, Great Adventure and Sesame Place.
Plan Participation
Term Life Insurance 13,316
Short Term Disability 7,314
Long Term Disability 15,931
Universal Life 1,408
Automobile Insurance 2,656
Homeowners Insurance 1,800
Legal Service Plan 3,554
Hospital Indemnity 726
National Traffic Safety* 2,183
Cellular Phone Program 4,784
Private Retirement Annuity 126
* Total enrollees year-to-date
Movie Theater Discounts
Movie discounts were negotiated during the past year with Hoyts, Cineplex Odeon, Loews and Sony Theaters. The discount tickets were sold by Membership Benefits and offered PEF members a significant cost savings. It is our plan to continue to offer these tickets and to investigate other theater discounts over the next year.
Retiree Benefits
We continue to provide support for the PEF Retirees Department, handling the overflow of telephone inquiries, as well as assembling the Retiree information packets. We also will offer support to the PEF Retiree president in the review of new benefit offerings.
An on-going function of the program has been to direct bill PEF Retirees for term-life-insurance premiums. We continue to explore the feasibility of deducting premiums from the Retirement System pension checks. PEF Retirees have already obtained dues, so we are confident that this can be accomplished over the next year.
Convention Exhibits
The convention exhibition area has been coordinated again this year by the Membership Benefits Program. A variety of businesses, committees and PEF departments are participating, with many contributing raffle prizes and other items for the delegates.
Information Tables
Membership Benefits' representatives attended 64 on-site visits during the past year. The Regional breakdown is as follows:
Region 1 .... 5 Region 7 ....... 5
Region 2 .... 1 Region 8 ...... 17
Region 3 .... 6 Region 9 ...... 10
Region 4 .... 5 Region 10 .... 2
Region 5 .... 2 Region 11 .... 2
Region 6 .... 5 Region 12 .... 1
Statewide Conferences .... 3