Good News for the New Year: 2024 Benefits Enhancements

Fostering a culture of wellbeing for team members is an important part of our strategic goals. Through feedback and surveys, you shared what benefit enhancements would be meaningful to you: more PTO, a higher retirement match, educational assistance, and enhanced medical benefits at a lower cost. We heard you! Check out the 2024 benefits enhancements that underscore our commitment to your wellbeing.

1. Paid Time Off (PTO):

PRN, Casual, and Temporary team members will now be eligible to accrue PTO also!  In 2024, PRN, Casual, and Temporary employees will now accrue PTO at the rate of 0.025. This means that PRN, Casual, and Temporary employees will accrue 1 hour of PTO for every 40 hours they’re paid.  

All team members will now accrue PTO on all hours paid within a pay period, no matter if they only have one paid hour or paid hours that exceed 80. This means team members will accrue PTO on all hours including overtime hours.

The PTO accrual rate for full-time, weekend option, and part-time team members in their first year of employment will increase from 0.077 (~20 days/year) up to 0.0846 (~22 days/year). New team members will begin accruing PTO at this higher rate (which equates to an additional 16 hours of PTO per year for a 40 hour/week employee).

The “Caregiver Me Time” policy for Casual-status Caregivers in HCBS will be incorporated into this updated general PTO Policy, and these team members will now simply accrue PTO (instead of “Caregiver Me Time”) at a comparable rate of 0.032 or 1.28 hours of PTO for every 40 hours paid.

2. Retirement Benefits: The LSS Retirement Match for eligible team members will increase from 2% (i.e., 25% of 8% of salary) to 3% (i.e., 50% of 6% of salary).  This means that LSS will now match $0.50 for every $1.00 eligible employees contribute up to 6% of their salaries, bringing the LSS match from 2% up to 3%. The LSS retirement match contributions were temporarily suspended in 2020 due to the significant financial stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite continued challenges, we brought back the LSS match in 2021 and we have increased the match incrementally every year since in an effort to return to pre-pandemic LSS match levels.

3. Educational Assistance Benefits: To help more team members access LSS educational benefits, LSS is reducing the eligibility for “Nursing Scholarship” and “Tuition Reimbursement” programs from 12-months of employment to 90-days of employment. LSS also is expanding the eligibility for these two programs from full-time team members only to now including part-time team members budgeted with at least 20 hours/week.  These changes will allow more team members to further their education earlier in their employment with LSS.

4. Medical Benefits:

Reduced Medical Premiums for More Team Members – LSS is increasing the salary point that is associated with higher employee premiums.  Currently, team members paid more than $45.00/hour contribute a greater dollar amount towards their medical benefits coverage.  In 2024, that salary point will increase to those paid over $50.00 per hour, which means a greater number of employees will now pay the lower premiums in 2024. 

Infertility Benefits – All four LSS Anthem medical plans will offer more to support infertility, including, but not limited to, Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and the associated diagnostic testing and Rx to support ART with infertility diagnosis, including AI, GIFT, ZIFT, and IVF with a $50,000 lifetime limit.

Musculoskeletal Benefits - A virtual physical therapy program will connect members with their very own dedicated licensed physical therapist to diagnose and treat aches and pains – all from a smartphone or tablet and at no cost to members of any of the four LSS Anthem medical plans. 

Cardiovascular Benefits - A personalized program with one-on-one coaching, specialist support, and smart devices to help members lose weight, manage diabetes, and lower blood pressure, will be available at no cost to members of any of the four LSS Anthem medical plans.

Breast Cancer Screenings - Diagnostic breast examinations, supplemental breast examinations, and/or low-dose mammography screenings will now cost members nothing … no copay, deductible, or coinsurance will be charged at all. 

Our benefits package is one of the many ways we invest in you, our most valuable resource. For information on your LSS benefits, you can always visit www.LSSBenefits.org from any computer or smart phone with an internet connection.

Have a wonderful holiday season, looking forward to a 2024 year filled with great new benefits!