From Friday's News-Gazette

SPRINGFIELD — State employees and retirees will get a little extra time to finish their group health insurance enrollments after all.

After weeks of insisting an enrollment deadline of 5 p.m. today will be strictly enforced, state officials announced at the end of the day Thursday the deadline will be extended until 5 p.m. Monday.

Any mailed enrollments must be postmarked by Monday to be accepted and processed, said Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services spokesman Mike Claffey.

The deadline was extended after the state and Humana failed to come to terms on a 90-day contract to serve state employees and retirees, Claffey said.

Humana won't be available as an insurance option because it wouldn't agree to give up exclusivity arrangements with providers, a condition for entering into an emergency 90-day contract with the state, Claffey said.

"This requirement is intended to encourage competition and ultimately a wider choice of providers," he said in an emailed statement. "They also result in the best deal for taxpayers and ensure best practices. HealthLink, Health Alliance and PersonalCare agreed to this provision. Unfortunately, Humana would not agree to this provision, so we were not able to establish a contract with them."

The 90-day contracts were rushed into place after a Sangamon County Court order stopped longer-term contracts with two of the insurance vendors the state had selected for the upcoming benefits period starting July 1, to allow time for a lawsuit filed by two rejected HMOs — Humana and Health Alliance — to be heard.

That court order left employees in many areas of the state facing an enrollment deadline without benefits choices.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield HMOs remain available, but only for 38 counties, and the state's Quality Care Health Plan has remained available in every county, but is unpopular with many because it is considered more expensive.

The new 90-day plans, which state officials say can be extended if necessary if the litigation extends past that time, include Health Alliance HMOs, a HealthLink Open Access Plan, a PersonalCare HMO and a PersonalCare Open Access Plan.

In the hectic rush to complete enrollment on time, state group members who want to stay with their current insurers have been instructed to do nothing and their coverage will automatically be extended for the 90 days of the new insurance contracts.

But after all the anxiety and confusion of the past month, many people continued to wonder if they need to do something, Health Alliance spokeswoman Jane Hayes said Thursday.

"A lot of folks are still calling us because they're nervous. They're afraid to trust that," she said. "Wouldn't you be?"

On the other hand, Health Alliance officials are also urging the 10,000 of their members who had already made a benefits change when the Health Alliance HMO was no longer available — and now want to switch back — to act swiftly before the deadline.

The State Universities Retirement System office in Champaign has also been telling retirees to do nothing if they haven't made a change and want to stay with their current insurers.

But the office has been getting more than 1,000 phone calls a day and hundreds of people coming in recently — many confused about what to do about the 90-day health coverage, said SURS Director of Outreach Pam Butler.

Note, for SURS retirees and benefits recipients only: For those who made an earlier change in insurers during the enrollment period, the SURS staff is assuming those people want to change back to the health insurer they originally had, and is making the change for them, Butler said.

For example, if a retiree had Health Alliance and made a change to an insurer that was available, the SURS staff will override the change and reinstate that person back in Health Alliance, Butler said. Those SURS retirees who made a change they want to keep should notify the SURS office about that as soon as possible to get the paperwork in before the deadline, she said.