Supplemental disability insurance enrollment begins

Feb. 22, 2007 -- Full- or part-time faculty or staff members limited in performing their job responsibilities due to a non-occupational illness or injury may apply for long-term disability (LTD) insurance benefits.

While the basic LTD coverage is automatic, supplemental coverage — available to some employees — requires enrollment. The annual enrollment period for supplemental plans is the last week of February and first week of March.

The LTD plan, which is underwritten by UNUM Provident, is available to regular faculty and staff members and represents a continuation of a percentage of salary while they are disabled and unable to work.

"There are two generous features of our LTD plan that make it extremely competitive" said Tom Lauman, director of benefits. "First, the definition of disability requires that employees be unable to perform the duties of their own occupation and are not required to perform any position with lesser duties. Second, the very unique retirement contribution provides our LTD participants with the opportunity to grow their retirement savings while on disability."

LTD should not be confused with long-term care insurance, which covers nursing home and in-home costs for care due to the inability to perform the regular activities of daily life.

WUSTL provides one basic level and offers two supplemental levels of LTD benefits that are determined by an employee's base annual salary. The basic level 1 coverage is automatically provided by the University for all benefits-eligible faculty and staff and requires no employee premium.

The supplemental levels 2 and 3 coverage is offered to employees with base annual salaries of $160,000 or higher on a voluntary basis and requires a monthly employee premium based on salary and age and provides a similar percentage benefit of total base salary.

Full- and part-time faculty and staff members are eligible for this coverage after one year of service. However, the effective date may be the first of the month following the date of hire if employees had group long-term disability coverage at a previous employer and didn't have a 90-day break in service before starting at WUSTL. These applicable employees need to complete a special waiver form.

Faculty and staff members are not required to complete an enrollment form for basic level 1 LTD benefits. Faculty and staff members eligible for supplemental levels 2 and 3 LTD benefits must complete an enrollment form and may have to complete a health questionnaire depending on the level of coverage and time of their enrollment.

After completing a six-month waiting period or medical-leave period and receiving disability approval by UNUM Provident, employees will be paid 60 percent of their base annual salary as of their last day worked for as long as they remain disabled.

The plan benefit is capped at a monthly maximum of $8,000 and is offset by Social Security disability and/or workers compensation benefits.

For employees who become disabled before age 50, the benefit is paid until age 65. For employees who become disabled at 50 or older, the benefit is paid on a sliding scale of payment durations. Employees approved for LTD retain the same health and life insurance benefits as active employees.

A special feature of the plan is continued payment of the University retirement contribution from the LTD plan to the employees' retirement savings plan account during the disability period.