The vote was 42-5.

At Tuesday afternoon’s information session, the company’s health care manager Rowlands & Barranca made a very important clarification on the proposed dental plan.

The $2,000 coverage cap for dental care under the Cigna plan is for each individual in a family, not the total for a household. A family of four, for example, would have a $2,000 cap for each parent and for each of two children, not one $2,000 cap for all of them.

Once the cap is reached, the Guild member would be responsible for any additional expenses.

Even Guild leaders had thought the cap was per family.

The other clarification is that the deductible that will apply to some services is a maximum of $50 for each individual and a maximum of $150 for a family. In that instance, a couple that both had teeth pulled would pay no more than $100 out of pocket. A family of four unlucky enough to all require pulled teeth or filled cavities would pay no more than $150.

The vote on the dental plan will be from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday and again from 5-5:30 p.m. Both votes will be in the advertising conference room on the second floor.

The Guild’s Executive Board is recommending approval of the plan, saying the benefits overall outweigh the negatives. The positives include 100 percent coverage of preventive care like oral exams, X-rays and cleaning as well as 50 percent coverage of periodontics and dentures, expenses not previously covered.

Change in dental plan comes with new benefits, $2,000 annual cap

Members will get to decide Thursday on health care coverage for 2016 that includes a proposed change in dental plans. The new plan comes with improved coverage but also has a $2,000 annual cap on expenses.

Employees whose coverage cost more than that would have to pay anything above the $2,000.

The Guild asked the Company how many employees would have exceeded the cap. In each of the last two years, two people had more than $2,000 in dental costs. It was different people each year, so four in all.

In 2014, one person had $2,742.40 in claims while another had $2,160.80. In 2015, one person had $2,300 in claims and the other had $2,250.40. Of course, what is unknown is if the employees could have delayed some of those services had the cap been in place to avoid paying any overrun.

The cap would increase each year by $100, and there is a 6.7 percent cap on increasing the rate for dental coverage for 2017.

As we said in an earlier bulletin, the Cigna PPO plan would offer coverage for some work, likes bridges, dentures and periodontics, that are not now covered. It would also include a deductible of $50 for singles and $150 for families for some expenses, although preventive care would be 100 percent covered. (Currently it’s 80 percent covered.)

The differences between the Cigna plan and the existing Blue Cross plan are sufficient that a switch will require a vote of the membership. (The contract language, still in effect, requires a vote when a new plan is not comparable to the old one.)

Rowlands & Barranca, who administer health insurance for the Times Union, will make a presentation on the differences to all employees at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Executive Conference Room. Guild members are encouraged to attend.

A vote will be held in the advertising conference room on Thursday from noon until 1 p.m. and then again from 5-5:30 p.m. (That’s a shorter window for the evening session, but we’ve found in recent votes that no one shows up after 5:30 p.m.)

The vote will cause a slight delay in the start of Thursday’s Executive Board meeting, which will follow immediately after the vote count at the Guild’s office in the Albany Labor Temple. That meeting, as always, is open to the membership.

The new dental plan proposed by the Company would offer added coverage employees do not currently have, but it would come with a price for some of those services.

For some dental benefits, there would be a $50 deductible for individuals and an $150 deductible for families.

That deductible would not apply for preventive services like cleaning, X-rays and exams. Those services would be 100 percent covered, while the current plan pays for only 80 percent of those costs so that is an added benefit.

The deductible would apply for some services that employees now get without having to pay a deductible: Those include oral surgery, repair of dentures or bridges, fillings, and having teeth pulled. Under the existing Empire Blue Cross plan, 80 percent of those costs are covered. Under the proposed Cigna plan, 80 percent of those costs would be covered after the deductible was paid so that is less good than what we have now.

The Cigna plan would cover some procedures that are not covered now. Periodontics would be covered, with insurance paying 80 percent of the cost after the deductible. Bridges, dentures, crowns, and implants, not currently covered, would be with 50 percent of the costs paid after the deductible. So this is an improvement.

The Company has provided a comparison sheet of the two plans, which we’re sharing with you. Capital News Dental Comparison 2016

The Guild also learned that the proposed alternative medical plan would have a $3,000 deductible for singles. For couples and families, that deductible would be $6,000. We do not expect, and would not recommend, any couples or families to take this plan and we would caution any singles against doing so. The plan would be offered mainly to address the requirement under the Affordable Care Act that an “affordable” option be presented, with affordability based not on the size of the deductible but on the weekly cost.

Please see our previous bulletin for the earlier details we shared.

Company and union leaders are in the midst of reviewing health-care options for 2016.

The Company and its health care manager, Rowlands & Barranca, have presented multiple options for Guild members. The best option appears to be keeping Empire Blue Cross for medical, with the deductible staying at $750, and switching to Cigna for dental coverage which would be less expensive and offer better coverage.

Times Union management also wants to offer a second option that we suspect few people would take: a policy with a $3,000 deductible employees would have to pay. Why this option? Under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, companies can pay a penalty if they do not offer an “affordable” health-care option. While a $3,000 deductible might not seem affordable, the term is measured based on the employee’s weekly payroll contribution not the size of the deductible.

The switch to Cigna for dental would add some benefits over the current plan. Right now, our health insurance covers 80 percent of preventative and basic restorative services and does not cover major services like dentures and bridges. Cigna would cover 100 percent of preventative work, 80 percent of basic restorative services and 50 percent of major services. (The one caveat is the dentures or bridge would have to be for new missing teeth, not ones lost in prior years. It’s a benefit going forward, not retroactively.)

Their network of dentists is said to be similar to the existing plan, though we always encourage members to check with their providers. Some members have had their dentists drop the existing plan.

The Guild and other unions are continuing to review the options presented, and your input is welcome. At the table for the Guild have been President Tim O’Brien, Secretary Mark Hempstead and Vice President Marci Schuck.

Here is a breakdown of the options presented:

1. Keeping the current setup, with a $750 deductible, for medical and switching to Cigna for dental. Under this plan, the weekly out of paycheck cost for employees would rise from $55.67 to $58.90, a 5.8 percent increase.
2. Increasing the deductible to $1,000 for medical while switching dental plans to Cigna. This would cost $58.09 a week. While that’s slightly cheaper on a weekly basis, the $42.12 annual savings doesn’t seem worth the $250 increase in the deductible. Most employees pass the $750 mark.
3. The plan with the $3,000 deductible, which would be offered as an option not instead of one of the first two plans. If anyone chose to take that gamble, the weekly cost would be tiered at $20.54 for an individual, $40.06 for a couple and $59.57 for a family. (Obviously it would make no sense for a family to choose this option as it would be more expensive.)