What is the Retirement Health Savings Plan?
The Vermont Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (VMERS) VantageCare Retirement Health Savings (RHS) Plan is an employer-sponsored health benefit savings plan that allows you to accumulate assets to pay for medical expenses for you and your spouse in retirement. VMERS has chosen to offer you this program so that you can take advantage of the numerous benefits, including tax-deferred accumulation of earnings, and tax-free withdrawals when account assets are used to pay for tax-qualified medical benefits for you and your spouse. All VMERS members and retirees who had a minimum of 5 years of contributory service in the plan on June 30, 2007 are eligible for plan participation and members can start to receive medical expense reimbursements at retirement.
RHS Plan Contributions and Participation
VMERS makes direct employer contributions to the RHS plan for your benefit. All eligible active and retired members will receive a specified dollar amount that will be deposited in the plan account that can be used at benefit eligibility/retirement for medical and insurance premium reimbursements. VMERS will also contribute a variable amount (based on years of service) in the insurance account which can only be used for insurance premium reimbursements once you retire. Please note that, since this is a medical benefit, plan participation is mandatory. For additional information on contributions and plan participation, please review the VMERS RHS Summary of Plan Provisions or contact VMERS at 1-800-642-3191.
VMERS Retirement Health Savings Plan Provider - Prudential Retirement
The VMERS RHS Plan is administered by Prudential Retirement who subcontracts with ConnectYourCare. VMERS and Prudential Retirement work closely together to ensure that you have the tools necessary to manage the funds in your RHS plan account. The investment options available to VMERS members are ICMA-RC’s Vantagepoint age-based Milestone Funds. You can click here to log in and view your account online. For online registration or password assistance, please contact ConnectYourCare at 1-877-292-4040.
VMERS and Prudential Retirement understand that rising healthcare costs are a major concern, especially for retiring employees. Participation in the VMERS VantageCare RHS Plan can potentially assist in giving you a head start on meeting increasing medical costs and planning for long-term care for yourself and your spouse. VMERS has chosen the RHS program to assist you with these expenses and to help you fulfill your retirement goals.
