Why Are Your Benefits Important?

MEDICAL

Regular health exams and tests can help find potential problems before they start.
Catching health problems early can improve your chances for treatment and cure.
Having an annual wellness exam helps you establish a relationship with your primary care doctor who can coordinate your health care.

DENTAL

Regular dentist visits can do more than keep your smile attractive – they can also tell dentists a lot about your overall health, including whether or not you may be at risk for chronic disease.

Did You Know?

The health of your mouth mirrors the condition of your body as a whole.
Everything from diabetes to cancer to heart disease and more can manifest as symptoms in your mouth.
While your dentist can treat dental diseases, preventing them is best. Follow these tips:

- Brush your teeth at least twice a day using fluoride toothpaste
- Floss at least once a day
- Eat foods from all the food groups: fruits and vegetables, dairy, meats and proteins, and grains
- Avoid sweet snacks and sugar-filled sodas
- Drink plenty of water
- Don’t smoke
- See your dentist regularly

VISION

Regular eye exams can provide early detection of vision problems and other serious conditions that can lead to visual impairment.

Annual eye exams are recommended for all ages even with no signs or symptoms of eye disease or vision problems. They are very important for maintaining eye health and preventing vision loss.

Did You Know?

Eye exams not only find vision problems, but they can also reveal other health problems such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and HIV.

Eye care professionals and ophthalmologists recommend the following tips to keep your vision healthy.
Get an annual eye exam – an eye exam may detect signs of serious health conditions.
Look at your family history – eye disorders are sometimes passed on genetically so be sure to tell your doctor if anyone in your family has an eye disease.
Don’t smoke – smoking increases your chances of developing eye diseases and affects the risk of cardiovascular disease which indirectly can affect your overall eye health.
Eat healthy – certain foods have been shown to be healthy for your eyes by providing them the vitamins and minerals needed.

Adults need to keep their vision prescription up to date. It’s extremely important for children to get an eye exam to make sure they continue normal vision development.

HOSPITAL INDEMNITY

Preparing for the unexpected. Hospital stays can mean lost time and lost income, which can make it hard to keep up with bills and things at home. Hospital Indemnity Coverage (HIC) pays a lump-sum that can be used to help cover unexpected costs that result from hospitalization.

Did You Know?

There’s no waiting period to begin plan coverage – start using the plan as soon as your coverage begins.
You and your eligible family members are guaranteed coverage

ID THEFT PROTECTION

Identity theft occurs when somebody uses your personally identifiable information (PII) for his or her own financial gain. In most cases, thieves gain access to your bank account, credit or debit card.

Did You Know?

A new identity is stolen every 2 seconds in the U.S.
Florida ranks #1 for highest number of identity theft complaints with Miami-Dade listed in the top 3 counties.

Without identity protection:

The average victim may spend $9,650 and 330 hours trying to resolve an identity theft case on their own.
50% of victims have trouble obtaining new credit.
12% of victims have arrest warrants issued in their name.

LEGAL

Handling legal issues on your own can be very difficult, stressful, time-consuming and expensive; legal insurance takes much of this burden away. When a life event turns into a legal issue, legal coverage is there to help you by offering a range of services to provide you peace of mind.

Unexpected end-of-life situations can happen at any age. Protect your life’s work with a will, living will, trust or the appropriate powers of attorney. Simple forms are available to all employees regardless if they are enrolled in a legal plan.

Did You Know?

The legal plans offered by the School Board provide a wide variety of covered legal matters that pay the attorney fees 100% for services such as wills, estate planning, traffic ticket defense, debt matters, purchasing or selling your home and much more.

You will receive in-office access to nationwide network plan attorneys or you can call a network attorney.
Coverage is provided anywhere in the United States.
You may use any non-network attorney and be reimbursed by the provider up to schedule maximums by submitting a claim form and your attorney’s billing statement directly to them.

SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM DISABILITY

The School Board provides all eligible full-time employees with Standard Short-term Disability (STD), which provides benefits of 60% of your earnings, up to a maximum of $500 per week, when you are out of work due to short periods of disability due to injury or illness, as defined in the policy.

Did You Know?

A long-term disability plan is available that would provide you a higher level of benefit.
Employees may elect to upgrade the Standard STD plan by purchasing one of the upgrade plans available.

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)

A TASC Card request is implemented as soon as you enroll. The card is generated in your name and mailed directly to your home address, along with the Cardholder Agreement.

What does the Medical FSA offer?
The Healthcare FSA offers you a choice to pay for certain qualified benefits on a pre-tax basis. Paying for certain benefits with pre-tax dollars reduces the amount you pay in taxes and increases your take-home pay.

Some eligible expenses include:

Medical care services
Dental care services
Vision care expenses
Prescriptions

What does the Dependent Care FSA offer?
The Dependent Care FSA allows you to use pre-tax dollars to pay for eligible expenses related to care for your child, disabled spouse, elderly parent, or other dependent who is physically or mentally incapable of self-care, so you (or your spouse) can work, look for work, or attend school full time.

Note: Medical expenses for your dependent are not eligible for reimbursement under the Dependent Care FSA.

Did You Know?

You have a “grace period” of two months and 15 days added to the end of your plan year for both Medical and Dependent Care FSA in which you may incur and submit eligible expenses against the just-ended Plan year.
Funds will be automatically deducted from any remaining dollars.
You have until April 15 to submit request for reimbursement for any expenses incurred through March 15.
It is important to be conservative in making elections because unused funds left in your account at the close of the plan year are not refundable to you and are returned to your employer.

Life

The School Board provides all full-time benefits eligible employees at no cost with Group Term Life insurance. The coverage is either one or two times your annual base salary rounded up to the next $1,000.00 based on your Bargaining Unit. The minimum benefit for employees represented by AFSCME is $10,000.

You can also increase the Board-paid coverage by purchasing additional coverage. For additional information call our on-site MetLife representative at 305-995-7029.

Additionally, you may purchase $10,000 to $100,000 (in $10,000 increments) of group term life insurance. This insurance supplements your Board-provided life insurance. You can have up to $50,000 in tax-free life insurance. Benefit coverage begins to reduce at age 65.

A group dependent life insurance program is also available on a voluntary basis to full-time employees. You may purchase term life insurance for your legal spouse/domestic partner (as long as they are not a full-time M-DCPS employee) or dependent children. For additional information contact our on-site MetLife representative at 305-995-7029.

Did You Know?

You can receive Accelerated Benefits up to 50% of your life insurance proceeds in the event that you become terminally ill and are diagnosed with less than 6 months to live.
Under Section 79 of the IRS Code, employees are liable to pay federal income taxes on group term life insurance amounts in excess of $50,000. Premiums for any amount over $50,000 are included as taxable income on your W-2 form.
You may apply for a conversion policy for all or any portion of life insurance in effect at termination upon request.

Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D)

Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) insurance provides benefits for you or your insured dependents in the event of a covered accident – on or off the job- which results in loss of life, limbs, use of limbs, eyesight, hearing or speech. You must be enrolled for coverage in order to cover your dependents. Benefit coverage begins to reduce at age 65. Employees represented by the AFSCME bargaining unit are not eligible to purchase this product.

Get Ready!

Preparing for enrollment starts today. Learn how you can become enrollment ready.

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Benefits Confirmation Statement

Review your current benefits and determine the benefits you will need in 2020.

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