66% of Purdue employees choose high-deductible medical plan for 2014

Human Resources has announced the results of the 2014 benefits open enrollment that ended Nov. 15. The data shows that 66 percent of Purdue faculty and staff system-wide elected a high-deductible medical plan for next year.

The 97.3 percent of benefits-eligible employees who either enrolled or opted out of Purdue medical coverage for 2014 chose the following:

* Purdue Health Plan -- 3,049 employees or 25 percent

* Purdue Health Plan Plus HSA 1 -- 5,759 employees or 46 percent

* Purdue Health Plan Plus HSA 2 -- 2,465 employees or 20 percent

* J-1 Visa Plan (enrollment limited to employees who hold a J-1 Visa): 135 or 1 percent

* No Purdue medical coverage (opt-outs): 983 or 8 percent

"We're delighted that so many faculty and staff went through EBenefits and made an intentional choice for 2014," says Eva Nodine, director of benefits in Human Resources. Last year, 93.8 percent of benefits-eligible employees went through the enrollment process.

"Employees did their homework, too, taking advantage of a number of resources that were available," Nodine says. Popular resources included:

* HR website: Medical-related pages had more than 142,000 hits from mid-July, when medical plan options for 2014 were announced, to the close of enrollment on Nov. 15.

* Truven Informed Enrollment: 86.7 percent of eligible users logged in to the Truven Informed Enrollment tool, which used the employee's claims history to estimate the employee's total cost under each of the 2014 medical plan options.

* Information sessions: Combined attendance at more than 200 departmental and open sessions reached 5,360.

* Online presentations: Recorded presentations offered on the Web had more than 1,850 views.

Employees will soon receive information about 2014 benefit ID cards and tips for using their 2014 medical plan effectively.