Brothers and Sisters,
Yesterday, December 1st, 2003 the FOP had a hearing in front of Judge Ryan.
He issued the following order:
Provided that Metro Government will extend open enrollment
for electing health insurance plans until December 31, 2003 and provided that
the FOP members
will elect a first choice which may include the two FOP plans H P 400
and the Anthem
Blue Access, and a second choice from the remaining four plans, and Provided
that the two FOP plans Humana KP 400 and Anthem Blue Access will continue
to be offered through December 31, 2003, andProvided that both the arbitration
opinion and final decision of the Mayor will be provided to the Court by
12:00 noon of December, 29 2003
and further, The Court will hear the proof of the parties and will and
will take the case under submission on the proof and briefs and will continue
the motion
for
Temporary Injunction for final decision by the Court on December 29,
2003.
What does all of that mean?
It means I spoke to Metro Government HR today and: you will be getting
new forms for open enrollment and there will be 6 choices for health
insurance with the
two FOP plans being among them. You should make a 1st choice and
then a 2nd
choice , just in case the two FOP plans won't be available because
we lost or case (only
in a bad dream).
Open enrollment will be extended to December 31st. You will be getting a letter
from the City regarding this issue very soon.
The Arbitration hearing is scheduled for December 12th, and the
Arbitrator will have his report back by the end of December. The
type of Arbitration
we have
is called advisory Arbitration, meaning the Mayor could decide
not to follow the Arbitrators ruling.
The Mayor must advise the court by noon on December 29th, 2003
of his decision to follow the Arbitrators findings or not.
Please feel free to ask me any questions regarding this situation.
Fraternally,
David James