Officials revamped faculty and staff benefits with three additional voluntary benefit options and raised monthly costs for full time employees’ medical, dental and vision plans next year.

Full-time faculty and staff will pay between $2 to $48 more toward their medical plans each month starting Jan. 1, 2024, depending on the span of their salary, coverage level and plan, according to the GW Human Resource Management & Development website. Officials will offer new critical illness and hospital visit insurance and a program to lower out-of-pocket medication costs during this year’s Benefits Open Enrollment season, which opened Monday and will close Oct. 27, according to the website.

The website also states that employees will pay about 4 percent more each month in 2024 for dental plans, raising monthly costs by between $2 and $6. Employees participating in the GW’s vision plan will pay 1.5 percent more than previous plan years each month in 2024, a monthly price raise of less than a dollar.

University employees can select their benefits from the University’s medical plans — which are administered by UnitedHealthcare — life insurance and dental plans each year during the Benefits Open Enrollment season from the middle to the end of October. Benefit selections will go into effect for University employees Jan. 1, 2024, and employees that do not make changes to their benefit selections will have their benefits from the previous year roll over to the next year.

Voya, a financial service company, will provide critical illness insurance for employees or eligible family members with unexpected medical conditions. The company will also provide hospital indemnity insurance for hospital, intensive care unit and rehabilitation center stays that occur after the employee’s coverage date.

GW will also include PrudentRx, a program to reduce out-of-pocket prescription costs through enrollment on drug manufacturers’ discount programs, in the GW HSP Pharmacy Benefit. Employees who enroll in the PrudentRx will pay zero out-of-pocket costs for medications on the program’s “specialty” list.

The Internal Revenue Service requires employees to reenroll in the Health Care Flexible Spending Account, an account for healthcare costs, and the Dependent Day Care Flexible Spending Account, an account for dependent care costs, each year. Bank of America will replace Payflex, a payment service, as GW’s vendor partner for the Health Care Flexible Spending Account and the Dependent Day Care Flexible Spending Account starting Jan. 1, 2024.

GW HR will host in-person events on the Virginia Science and Technology and Foggy Bottom campuses during the enrollment period, including a dental clinic and a yoga retreat, and virtual events like a coffee chat where HR staff members will provide an overview of benefit offerings.

Employees who participate in GW’s medical plans will receive lower copayments and employee coinsurance when they seek treatment from a Medical Faculty Associates provider.