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 Beneva.

As 2026 is a refresh year, your flex options are locked, but if you have excess credits they will be refreshed to your health / wellness spending accounts as per your allocation in 2025.Your excess credits will be deposited to your Alberta Blue Cross account on January 1, 2026. 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, 2024 will expire after December 31, 2025. Unspent credits remaining that were deposited on January 1, 2025 can be carried over to spending in 2026. Credits deposited on January 1, 2024 and not used by December 31, 2025 will be forfeited.

If you have credits available and wish to claim expenses incurred in 2025, you only have until March 31, 2026 to submit these claims. All claims must be submitted within the year that they are incurred, or during the 90 day run off period.

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