Your Health Care Facilitator Program specializes in troubleshooting the use of UC health plans—and coordinating them with Medicare
Open Enrollment for 2025 starts on Halloween
UC health plans will be open for enrollment 10/31–11/22/2024 this year and Open Enrollment packets should arrive during the last week of October. Our presentations UC Medical Plan Overview (for employees) and UC Retiree Medical Plans (for retirees) will be updated with 2025 information no later than the first week of Open Enrollment. Rates and other details will not be available until late in October, but this announcement by systemwide HR Vice President Cheryl Lloyd provides a preview. Additional FAQs can be found on UCnet.
2024 UC Medical Plans
Employee Open Enrollment ended at 5 p.m. PST on Friday, 11/17/2023. Retiree Open Enrollment ended at 5 p.m. PST on Monday, 11/27/2023.
Even though enrollment is no longer open, the HCF Program is here to help you with video explanations of the plans, rate calculating tools for retirees, a tool that shows medical plan availability across California and beyond, and more:
How much? Medical plan premiums for 2024:
- Employee rates
- Note: The UC Blue & Gold HMO rates on the UCnet website are NOT the rates for UC Davis and ANR employees.
- Retiree rates: 2024 UC Retiree Premium Estimator [Excel]
- Information about the rate increases for 2024
Where? Regional medical plan availability:
The 2024 UC Medical Plan Availability Tool [Excel] indicates plan availability by ZIP code and county.
Which? Compare medical plans side-by-side:
- Which medical plan is right for you? [PDF] (Employees & Retirees)
- Which Medicare plan is right for you? [PDF] (Retirees with Medicare)
Who? Local Davis/Sacramento medical provider availability by plan:
- More On UC Medical Plans [PDF]; lists all major local medical groups.
- UC Davis Medical Group is available through all non-Kaiser plans
Who else? Search for network providers across California and beyond:
- Anthem Blue Cross PPOs:
- CORE
- UC Health Savings Plan
- UC Care
- This plan offers two levels of in-network providers: UC Select (Tier 1) and Anthem Preferred (Tier 2). Both are preferred providers, but UC Select providers are located near UC locations and cost you much less.
- If a provider appears as both UC Select and Anthem Preferred, then the provider uses multiple tax ID numbers for billing. To determine whether your claim with that provider will be processed at the more desirable UC Select tier, be sure to call the number on your ID card to speak to an Accolade Health Care Advocate, who will check with the provider and attempt to determine which tax ID will be used for billing.
- Preferred providers outside the U.S.A.
- CORE/UC Health Savings Plan members use code QUC to search
- UC Care members use code VUC to search
- UC Medicare PPO/UC High Option members use code U5X to search
- UC Medicare PPO, UC High Option
- Health Net: UC Blue & Gold HMO (Urban CA only.)
- Kaiser Permanente/Senior Advantage (HMO) (Urban CA only.)
- UnitedHealthcare: UC Medicare Choice (Medicare Advantage PPO)
How to get more information? UCnet health plan phone numbers and web addresses
- Anthem Blue Cross (non-Medicare) | Anthem Blue Cross (retirees with Medicare)
- Navitus (Pharmacy Benefit Manager)
- HealthEquity (HSA plan administrator—UC Health Savings Plan members only.)
- Health Net
- Kaiser Permanente
- Optum behavioral health (Access Code: 11280) (Non-Medicare Kaiser members only.)
- UnitedHealthcare (Medicare retirees only)
- Via Benefits (Age 65+ Medicare-eligible retirees with home addresses outside California only; all covered family members must have Medicare.)
- Delta Dental
- Vision Service Plan for Active Employees
- Vision Service Plan for Retirees
Open Enrollment booklets
- Faculty & Staff [PDF]
- Information booklet [PDF]
- Retiree Open Enrollment booklet [PDF] for California retirees
- Information booklet [PDF] for California retirees
- Retiree Out-of-State Open Enrollment booklet [PDF] for Medicare-eligible retirees aged 65+ with all covered family members age 65+
UC considers changes to retiree health contributions
A Retiree Health Benefits Working Group has been formed to provide input regarding reductions and/or changes in strategy toward UC's contributions to retiree health coverage.
See the UC Davis Retiree Center site for updates on the Working Group.
UC simplifies retiree health benefits rules
To simplify administration and respond to the concerns of newer employees hired before 7/1/2013, UC changed the eligibility rules for retiree health benefits.
Did You Know?
Most of the medical plans that the university offers to employees and retirees cover 30-day supplies of prescription drugs for a flat copayment. However, if you take medications on an ongoing basis, you can save money by using University of California pharmacies. At UC pharmacies, you can get 90-day supplies of your drugs for two copayments — you pay 1/3 less!
If you are enrolled in some of the Anthem Blue Cross plans (UC Care, UC High Option, UC Medicare PPO); UC Blue & Gold HMO (Health Net) or UC Medicare Choice (UnitedHealthcare):
UC Davis outpatient pharmacies (in Davis and Sacramento).
Don't live near a UC pharmacy? You can get the same two co-payment deal for 90-day supplies through some plans at certain local retail pharmacies and/or through your plan's mail order pharmacy.
UC Blue & Gold HMO (Health Net): Local CVS pharmacies
UC Care (Anthem Blue Cross): Local Costco, CVS, Safeway/Vons, Walgreens, and Walmart pharmacies
UC High Option (Anthem Blue Cross): Local Costco, CVS, Safeway/Vons, Walgreens, and Walmart pharmacies
UC Medicare PPO (Anthem Blue Cross): Local Costco, CVS, Safeway/Vons, Walgreens, and Walmart pharmacies
UC Medicare Choice (UnitedHealthcare): Local Costco, CVS, Rite Aid, Safeway, Target, Walmart, and Walgreens pharmacies
Click here for medical plan contact information. Log on to your plan's website as a member to access links to their mail order pharmacy programs.