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Retiree Open Enrollment

Compare Medical Plans & Costs

Active employees and official retirees can use this tool to compare medical benefits, as well as plan costs.

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You bring your passion and goals to life

Stanford’s benefits are here to support you at every part of your journey. Open Enrollment is your once-a-year opportunity to make changes to your health plan, and add or drop dependents from your coverage.

Select your benefits from Oct. 21 through Nov. 8 at My Benefits. The choices you make are effective Jan. 1, 2025, and cannot be changed unless you have a qualifying life event. 

 

What's Changing: Your Benefits for 2025 


Medicare Health Plans

We are committed to offering valuable benefits that support your health. Each year, we evaluate our plans to ensure you have access to the care you need.

Health Net advised that effective Jan. 1, 2025, they will no longer offer their plans for Medicare retirees, which include the Seniority Plus Medicare Advantage Plan and the COB Medicare Supplement Plan. If you are currently enrolled in a Health Net plan, you must choose a new health plan during Open Enrollment. If you do not actively enroll by Nov. 8, you will be automatically enrolled in the Blue Shield Retiree PPO plan.

You have the option to choose from two existing plan options for 2025:

  1. Medicare Advantage Plan: assign Medicare benefits to an HMO and the plan coordinates with Medicare.
         -Kaiser Senior Advantage (California)

   2. Medicare Supplement Plan: Medicare is your primary plan, and the supplement plan becomes secondary, paying only after you receive payment from Medicare.
           -Blue Shield Retiree PPO

Note: Stanford Health Care and Palo Alto Medical Foundation/Sutter Health are only available through the Blue Shield Retiree PPO plan.

Key steps if you are transitioning to Blue Shield Retiree PPO

If you change plans from Health Net to Blue Shield here are a few things that will help transition:

  1. Notify Your Providers: Inform your health care providers that your Health Net Seniority Plus Medicare Advantage coverage will end on Jan. 1, 2025 and you'll be enrolling in the Blue Shield Retiree Supplement plan starting Jan. 1, 2025.
  2. Set Up Medicare Crossover: Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, contact Blue Shield to set up Medicare Crossover for easier claims processing. This process allows Medicare to send your Part B claims directly to Blue Shield. Once Medicare pays its portion, any remaining amount will be billed by your doctor’s office.
  3. Home Prescription Deliveries: For non-specialty medications, you can sign up for home delivery through Amazon Pharmacy. Check out the flyer from Amazon for instructions on signing up for home prescription deliveries.

Non-Medicare Retiree Health Plan Updates

You will continue to have three medical plan options:

  1. Kaiser HMO (California)
  2. Stanford Select Copay Health Plan
  3. Stanford Choice High Deductible Health Plan


Starting in 2025, all Stanford medical plans will offer hearing aid coverage. This benefit provides up to $3,000 in benefits every 36 months toward the purchase of hearing aid devices.

Your Cost for Coverage

Your cost for coverage may be changing. View the full plan rates for 2025 for details. 

Monthly premium payments for retiree health care are made directly to Stanford’s third-party billing administrator, Vita Companies. Enroll in auto-debit using the SurePay program, which allows retirees to have payments for various benefits withheld directly from a personal bank account. For more information about the SurePay program visit Cardinal at Work.

Dental Plan Enhancements

We are enhancing the Retiree Dental Plan to better support your orthodontic care needs. The maximum benefit for orthodontia is increasing from $1,000 to $2,000, giving you more coverage to manage the costs of braces and other orthodontic treatments.

New ID Cards

Due to a recent name change for Blue Shield’s pharmacy carrier, all members will receive new ID cards. If you have not opted into digital communications, your new card will be mailed. For those who have opted for digital communications, you can download your new ID card starting January 1, 2025.

Attend a Virtual Information Session

Learn about your benefits for 2025 and get your questions answered. Attend a virtual information session that includes a Q&A with the Stanford Benefits team. See dates and times below.

Open Enrollment Tips for Retirees

Need help logging in to My Benefits? Your username is your SUNet ID (if it’s fewer than 8 digits, add zeros to the front to make it 8 digits). Please note that passwords are reset every three months. If you have trouble logging in or need to reset your password, contact the University HR Service Team at 877-905-2985 or 650-736-2985, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. PT (except during holidays).

How do I know if I’m finished making elections? You can make elections as many times as you need to during Open Enrollment. The My Benefits portal will have a yellow bar for the Open Enrollment event posted for the entire enrollment period. When you hit “Submit” you will see a screen that shows your confirmation number. You should also receive a confirmation notice in the mail once Open Enrollment ends. Because you can return and make changes multiple times until Open Enrollment closes, you will receive a confirmation email every time you click “Submit.”

Avoid the long phone wait time! Due to the high volume of requests that occur during Open Enrollment, the University HR Service Team has enlisted additional support from our enrollment administrator to ensure you receive high-quality service and fast response times. Log in to the My Benefits portal to submit a request for assistance, or you can call 877-905-2985, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. PT.

Open Enrollment Resources for Retirees 

 

Have you set up Medicare Crossover Billing?

   ​Streamline your claims processing with Crossover Billing.