IMPORTANT: Open Enrollment Guidance and Cautions

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On Wednesday, Dow Jones employees received an announcement from Dianne DeSevo that Open Enrollment starts on November 6 and ends on November 20. 

There are a couple of changes to note: 

  1. A new medical plan option called Centivo Partnership Plan (according to the website only available in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas) is being offered. Be sure to visit the website and read carefully what this new plan offers and costs. The yearly premium for this new plan has yet to be released. The company is offering four workshops to learn about Centivo, as well as a pre-recorded workshop. Additionally, always do your own research.

  2. As you may remember from bargaining updates, IAPE negotiated a new benefit for doula reimbursement. While we did not negotiate the reimbursement amount, the announcement from Dianne DeSevo confirms that the benefit will be implemented by Dow Jones with a reimbursement amount of $2,000. 

CAUTION: The Dow Jones Open Enrollment process still offers a decision support tool. In the past, this tool has been called “Ask Alex” and “Pilot”. For the 2025 Open Enrollment period the decision support tool is called “Precision Benefit”. 

Regardless of its name, in the past, the tool provided by Dow Jones to assist in choosing appropriate healthcare coverage remained the same in its inefficiency in suggesting appropriate coverage. Each year we hear from IAPE members that no matter what information they enter into this tool, the system always selects the high-deductible CDHP plan as the primary option. This misleads members to assume that this is, in fact, the right option for them. However, many times this is not the case and we hear during the year that members’ healthcare costs have skyrocketed because they did not choose the appropriate plan for them. NOTE: You cannot switch Dow Jones health insurance plans outside of Open Enrollment.

In the past, IAPE has informed Dow Jones of our concerns with the decision support tool and highlighted that the tool does not suggest the POS II Plan as an insurance option.

We are not yet able to test out this year’s “Precision Benefit” tool since it will not be rolled out until November 6. That being said, as in the past, IAPE has not received any assurance that the “Precision Benefit” will be any more accurate this year. Therefore, we offer the same caution this year: do not rely on Precision Benefit to lead you in the right direction. We recommend reviewing each plan and choosing the healthcare option that is best for your needs.. 

If you were unable to attend IAPE’s Contract 101 on Healthcare, you can find a link to the recording on IAPE Slack. Click here to sign up for IAPE Slack.