Group Benefit Premiums

Each year, the university reviews group benefit premiums for each staff group. MaPS premiums and price tags are adjusted, as required, to ensure adequate funding to maintain coverage. Many factors affect the ongoing costs of providing our group benefit coverage, including:

• Changes in the demographics of our staff 
• Increased utilization of services
• Inflationary increases in health and dental costs
• Claim reserve requirements by the insurer

Monthly premiums and cost sharing can also be found on the Benefits at a Glance documents which are updated regularly or on the Flexible Group Benefits Plan Information webpages. Health and dental benefits are provided through Alberta Blue Cross. Life Insurance and Long Term Disability benefits are insured by Manulife, and Accidental Death and Dismemberment and Critical Illness are insured by SSQ Financial Group.

As 2023 is a re-enrolment year, your flex options are unlocked during the re-enrolment period, and you are able to change flex option choices and allocations to your spending accounts. 

Any excess flex credits remaining once you have elected your Health and Dental options can be allocated to a Health/Wellness Spending Account. Your excess credits will be deposited to your Alberta Blue Cross account on January 1, 2023. To view your credits, sign in to your Alberta Blue Cross account.

Unused spending account credits may be carried forward for one benefit year after the year in which the credits were allocated. At the end of the second benefit year, unused credits will forfeit.

Unspent credits deposited on January 1, 2021 will expire after December 31, 2022. Unspent credits remaining that were deposited on January 1, 2022 can be carried over to spending in 2023. Credits deposited on January 1, 2021 and not used by December 31, 2022 will be forfeited.

If you have credits available and wish to claim expenses incurred in 2022, you only have until March 31, 2023 to submit these claims. All claims must be submitted within the year that they are incurred, or during the 90 day run off period.

MaPS Flexible Spending Account outlines all guidelines for these accounts.

For details about options refer to the Flexible Credits & Options Overview section and expand on Health Options or Dental Options to see full benefit charts.

There are no changes to the premiums currently in effect for the following benefits:

• Voluntary Accidental Death and Dismemberment, 100% paid by the staff member
• Optional dependent Child Life Insurance, 100% paid by the staff member
• Voluntary Employee/Spousal Critical Illness, 100% paid by the staff member
• Optional Life Insurance , 100% paid by the staff member