St Paul Police Retirement Association

On November 5th, Healthpartners (HP) and United Healthcare (UHC) announced they have resolved the 2025 contract issues for Medicare Advantage Plan participation. On November 9th, City Benefits announced agreement had also been reached with Essentia for 2025 UHC coverage.

HP issued a letter which will be USPS mailed to all HP Medicare Advantage Plan patients, stating they had reached an agreement with UHC that addressed its concerns of the medical claims processes. The letter goes on to say that HP is sorry this situation has caused uncertainty and stress for many of its patients over the past few months.

Police Federation President Mark Ross and Fire Local 21 Union President Mike Smith both wrote letters to the Mayor, HP and UHC in the late stages of negotiations, urging action.

City Benefits and UHC have confirmed the resolution of the impasse. To be clear, the HP letter indicates this HP agreement with our UHC Medicare Advantage Plan is for the 2025 contract year only.

Early Retirees (under 65y) are receiving open enrollment forms in the USPS mail now. Regular or Medicare Retirees should be receiving open enrollment forms soon. Open enrollment is November 11th through November 22nd.
 

 Some time ago, we notified the Federation that Regular Retirees were not allowed access to unused health insurance benefits to pay Medicare Part B premiums. The first Federation attorney had a strange response and rejected our position (see newsletter accounts here).

Federation President Mark Ross disagreed with the attorney's opinion and decided to pursue the issue directly with City Labor Relations. In August of this year, President Ross requested a documented interpretation why the City is choosing to withhold our use of excess Federation benefits for a City-provided health insurance premium.

Federation Letter

The City replied to the Federation soon after.

Labor Relations Letter

We at the SPPRA find the City response incomplete and inaccurate. The Part B premium is not separate nor is it a part of a third-party insurance program. The Part B premium is a seamless requirement of the only private health insurance plan offered to Regular Retirees under contract. 

 Hopefully, those of you on and approaching Medicare have been following the insurance coverage news here and in the media.

We and the St. Paul Veteran Firefighters Association (retired firefighters) discovered our City Medicare insurance contract expired at the end of this year. When we investigated, we found there had been no mention of it at the St. Paul Labor Management Committee on Health Insurance (LMCHI).

Management routinely discusses and negotiates with Labor all health insurance provided by contract or CBA. Or so we foolishly thought. The LMCHI is composed of representatives of all bargaining units in the City (unions) and City Benefits team members. 

We requested our representatives from the Federation (Police) and Local 21 (Fire) place a letter on the August 12 meeting of the LMCHI agenda asking what is in store for 2025 City Medicare users. Go here if you'd like to read about what we found out.

Early in July, Don Grundhauser was diagnosed with colorectal cancer with metastasis to his lungs, liver, and lymph nodes.

So, we need to show up big for Donny

The funds raised for the family here will help give access to so many big needs and the best treatment possible. Specifically, it will support traveling across the nation for special treatment. Together we can help with this and many other expenses like gas, parking, meals, medical, and others that we cannot even anticipate.

Thank you in advance for your generosity and support for Donny and his family. Please use the button below to help out.