2024 General Election
Employee Open Enrollment
Welcome to the Annual Benefits Open Enrollment Website!
This page contains information about benefits and changes for 2025. Information about 2024 benefits may be found on the main Employee Benefits website.
Open Enrollment is an annual opportunity for eligible employees to review and make changes to their health benefits for the upcoming calendar year.
During Open Enrollment, you may:
- Change your health plan
- Add/remove dependents
- Enroll dependents on the GAP Plan for Surest members (current dependent GAP coverage will continue)
- Enroll or re-enroll in the Healthcare Flexible Spending Account and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account
- Apply for or change supplemental benefits
- Enroll in a Health Savings Account if moving to the High Deductible Health Plan
*New employees hired on or after October 4, 2022 are required to continue on the High Deductible Health Plan with a Health Savings Account for the 2025 plan year.
2025 Health Plans
Please review the 2025 health plans completely to make an informed decision for you and your family.
Surest, PPO and HDHP members have access to the United Healthcare Choice Plus national network.
This provides access to all hospitals in our region to include Renown Regional Medical Center, St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, Northern Nevada Medical Center, Northern Nevada Sierra Medical Center, and Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center.
High Deductible Health Plan
- Premium change
- Annual family deductible increase from $3,200 to $3,300 (IRS requirement)
- Add weight-loss program with Specialty Health and Premier Physicians
PPO Plan
- Premium change
- Change Maximum Out-of-Pocket structure by splitting the medical and pharmacy
- Currently $3,450 individual; $6,900 family as combined medical and pharmacy
- Changing to:
- $1,450 medical and $2,000 pharmacy for individual coverage
- $2,900 medical and $4,000 pharmacy for family coverage
- Add weight-loss program with Specialty Health and Premier Physicians
Surest Plan
- Premium Change
- Increase Emergency Room Co-Pay from $325 to $350
- Increase In-Network Urgent Care Co-Pay from $30 to $35
- Decrease MRI, PET, CT scan from $75-$500 to $60-$450
- Change Inpatient Hospitalization from $1,600 to $150-$2,500
- Reduce Formulary Generic Drug Co-Pay from $15 to $10
- Reduce Formulary Brand Drug Co-Pay from $40 to $35
- Increase Non-Formulary Drug Co-Pay from $60 to $70
Dental Plan
- Fluoride treatment 2x per year covered at 100%, no age limit
Vision Plan
- Increase frame allowance of $175 to every 12 months
Health Insurance Premiums for 2025
Washoe County pays 100% of employee premiums and 50% of dependent premiums. For those employees who wish to cover their dependents, premiums are deducted each pay period on a pre-tax basis. Once you have elected coverage you will not be permitted to make a change until the next open enrollment period unless there is a qualifying event. The premiums shown below represent the employee’s share of dependent coverage cost per pay period.
*Domestic Partner premium is a post-tax deduction.
Health Savings Account
Washoe County will contribute annually $2,250 for employee only or $2,500 for employees with one or more dependents into a Health Savings Account for those enrolled in the High Deductible Plan as of January 1, 2025.
- Employees continuing on the HDHP will see the HSA contribution on the January 3rd paycheck.
- Employees moving to the HDHP will see the HSA contribution on the January 17th paycheck.
What do you need to do?
- Discover your options and learn about the different health plans offered at Washoe County: Plan on attending an Employee Open Enrollment Meeting.
- Consider the costs associated with each plan: Review the premium rates for 2025 and the Medical Plan Comparison Employee Benefit Comparison.
- Compare plans by reviewing the Summary of Benefits for each plan offered: PPO, HDHP and Surest.
- Locate network providers on UMR's website (select the United Healthcare Choice Plus Network) for PPO and HDHP providers.
- Locate network providers for Surest by using the following access code: Washoe2024.
- Dental providers are with the Guardian Dental Network; Dental Plan Summary
- Vision benefits are with Vision Service Plan (VSP); Vision Plan Summary.
- Review/update your life insurance beneficiary information in ESS: You may update your beneficiary designation at anytime, but open enrollment is a great time to review and update.
- Meet with American Fidelity: As a reminder, employees are required to meet with American Fidelity to enroll in the Health Savings Account; enroll or re-enroll into a Healthcare Flexible Spending Account and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account; to enroll for voluntary dependent GAP coverage (Surest members).
To make an appointment with an American Fidelity representative:
- LAST STEP - ACTION REQUIRED: The Open Enrollment process is completed entirely online through ESS.
ALL employees must review their benefit plans and certify their enrollment status annually, even if you are not making a change.
For guidance, please access the ESS Open Enrollment Quick Reference Guide.