NU Online News Service, Dec. 4, 9:01 a.m. – The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Sacramento, Calif., says 170,000 families are shifting from one CalPERS major medical plan to another for 2003.
Only 85,000 families switched plans within the CalPERS system in 2002, CalPERS says.
CalPERS is a nonprofit organization that provides health coverage and other benefits for 1.2 million California public employees and retirees. It offers a long menu of health plan choices, but it had to make sweeping changes to the 2003 menu because of a combination of managed care company shutdowns, dramatic price increases, and some companies’ lack of interest in returning to the program.