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Limited Parking at Juvenile Justice Center

The County of Kern is installing solar panels in the parking lot of Public Health. This will impact parking at the Juvenile Justice Center. The project is expected to last through May 1, 2024.

2024 Open Enrollment

Welcome to the Open Enrollment period for the 2024 Plan Year! 

The Court has opted to continue to conduct its Open Enrollment period electronically.  Additionally, the annual Open Enrollment notification letter will no longer be sent to resident/mailing addresses on file.  Instead, all documents (including the annual Open Enrollment notification letter) are posted on this page and are available by clicking the appropriate links below.

Open Enrollment periods are an excellent time to make changes to your health plan, such as adding or dropping dependents, when you would otherwise be unable to do so without sustaining a qualifying life event, such as a marriage, divorce, birth or death, or the gaining or losing of benefit coverage elsewhere during the course of the year.  Additionally, Open Enrollment is also the time each year when elections to the Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Plans must be made.  *Please note: Participation in an FSA plan(s) does not automatically carry over to the next available plan year; therefore, participation in FSA plans must be renewed each year and any remaining unused funds from the prior plan year will be forfeited by the enrollee.

As always, the Court’s Open Enrollment period will run for the full month of October (October 1, 2023 through October 31, 2023), with all forms being received by Human Resources, no later than Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 5:00 p.m.  It is important to note that any changes made during this annual Open Enrollment period do not take effect until January 1st of the new plan year (January 1, 2024).  Please also note that in order to add new dependents, you must complete and return the 2024 HealthComp Enrollment Form and attach a copy of all supporting documentation of the dependent(s) relation to you, such as a marriage certificate (if adding a spouse), or a birth certificate or other Court-related documentation (if adding a child under the age of 26).

The Court will continue to offer employees the ability to enroll in the Court’s PPO Medical, Prescription, Dental and Vision plans; or, if you are presently enrolled in an HMO plan that you are pleased with, but are lacking the Dental and Vision components, you have the ability to obtain just the Dental and Vision component available through the Court.  Unfortunately, our PPO Medical and Prescription plans do not coordinate benefit coverage with HMO plans (unless they are state-funded, such as Medicare or Medi-Cal); therefore, enrolling in full coverage through the Court’s PPO plan while remaining covered by another HMO plan could become problematic for members.  Employees who will be dropping coverage through the Court’s plan, or who are electing the Dental and Vision only component, should be prepared to provide proof of other health insurance.

NEW for 2024!

Upcoming Changes to PPO Dental: The Court is excited to announce that, effective January 1, 2024, we will be replacing the current Dental PPO Network (Connection Dental and First Dental Health) with the Anthem Dental PPO Network. This change will result in the increased availability of in-network dental providers, as well as lower out-of-pocket costs for certain dental benefits. With this change in dental network, the Court is also pleased to advise that the required copay for child orthodontia will decrease from $2,600 per covered child, to $2,400 per covered child, to match the current orthodontia copays for adults. 

If you, or a covered dependent, are in the middle of orthodontic treatment as of January 1, 2024, please ensure you provide your new ID card to your orthodontic provider so they can send all claims for services rendered on or after January 1st to Anthem. All information they will need to send claims to Anthem will be located on your new ID card.

*It is important to note that the orthodontic benefit will not start over under Anthem; therefore, any co-pays already satisfied under the previous plan will carry over. Likewise, any benefits paid by the plan towards a covered member’s lifetime maximum, will also carry over.

For information about finding care in Anthem's Dental PPO Network, please click on the link below titled, “2024 Finding Care in Dental Network.”

Optum EAP Changes for 2024: Effective January 1, 2024, Optum's Employee Assistance Program (known as EAP) will be changing its name to “Emotional Wellbeing Solutions (EWS).” Employees will continue to receive the same great benefits, with the same network of providers, and all contact information will remain the same; therefore, there will be no action needed from you to continue accessing care. However, the Court wanted to make sure all staff was advised of this impending change, as all digital communications and call center greetings will reflect this updated name on and after January 1, 2024.

Rate Changes for 2024 Plan Year: While the Court has been able to maintain an extremely low to no rate increase in Medical premiums each year since breaking away from the County of Kern with our benefits in 2008, the ripple effects from deferred care during the COVID pandemic have rebound and our plan (similar many others nationwide) has seen a significant increase in claims activity during the past 12 months. Since claims experience is the primary driving factor for health insurance premiums, the Court’s Medical plan will experience an increase in premium rates beginning January 1, 2024.

While there is an expected increase to the Medical premium component of the Court's benefit plan, the court is pleased to announce that there will be no increase to the Dental or Vision plan rates for the upcoming 2024 plan year.

The bi-weekly premium rates for the 2024 plan year are as follows:

Rates effective January 1, 2024 (Active, Full-time Employees)

  MEDICAL / RX / DENTAL & VISION DENTAL & VISION ONLY
Employee $0.00 $0.00
Employee + 1 $82.83 $3.99
Employee + 2 or more $165.32 $8.10

*The Court will continue to cover 100% of the bi-weekly premiums for employees and their eligible dependents, if they were hired prior to April 15, 1997.

Extra Help/Temporary/Retired Annuitants

For those of you who are employed as Extra Help/Temporary/or Retired Annuitants, the Court continues to offer the limited scope of benefits inclusive of Medical, Prescription and EAP/EWS coverage ONLY at this time.  While you may be employed for a limited period of time, if your current benefits are scheduled to go beyond January 1, 2024, you are able to make changes to your current elections during this Open Enrollment period.  Just like “Active” employees, any changes you make during this Open Enrollment (10/1/2023 – 10/31/2023), do not take effect until January 1, 2024.  Below are the forms you will need to utilize if you need to add, drop or change coverage.

Rates effective January 1, 2024 (Extra Help/Temp/Retired Annuitant Employees)

  MEDICAL / RX  
Employee $0.00  
Employee + 1 $78.84  
Employee + 2 or more $157.22  

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