How Voluntary Benefits Can Help You Prepare for the Unexpected

Would you be financially ready if you had an accidental injury, a serious illness or an unexpected hospital stay? You could be more prepared if you had supplemental insurance plans—voluntary benefits that help fill in the gaps to supplement your medical coverage.

As you begin to think about your options for benefits open enrollment this fall, remember that as an employee, you can enroll in Aetna Voluntary Benefits to pay you cash benefits for expected and unexpected medical events. They give you extra cash when you need it most to help pay out-of-pocket medical costs or personal expenses. The money can be used for anything you want, such as co-pays, medical bills, other bills like rent or mortgage, child care or groceries. When a claim is filed, Aetna will either mail you a check or deposit the check into your bank account if you’ve signed up for direct deposit.

We offer three different plans with low monthly rates—because life happens and you want to be ready! Enrollment is guaranteed. No questions asked about your health, and you get benefits paid directly to you by check or direct deposit.

The Aetna Accident Plan: Covers Treatment for an Accidental Injury

• Designed to cover out-of-pocket costs related to an accident that occurs on or off the job.
• Choose from two plans.
• Receive cash benefits for a variety of accidental injuries and treatment as specified in the benefit summary. The Accident Plan page has more details.
• Examples of covered costs include ambulance, inpatient hospital treatment, fractures and dislocations and therapy services.

The Aetna Critical Illness Plan: Pays Cash Benefits When Diagnosed With Serious Illness

• Designed to cover out-of-pocket costs related to the diagnosis of a covered serious illness or condition, like heart attack, stroke, cancer and more.
• Choose from three plan options with a maximum benefit of $10K, $20K or $30K per diagnosis.
• Receive a lump sum cash benefit upon diagnosis, as specified in the benefit summary. The Critical Illness page has more details.
• Receive rates based on your age and tobacco use; benefits for your spouse and children are based on 50% of your benefits.
• Includes an annual health screening benefit that pays $50 when the covered member takes one of the covered preventive health screenings.
• Examples of covered illnesses include heart attack, stroke, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Disease.

The Hospital Indemnity Plan: Pays Cash Benefits for Planned or Unplanned Hospitalization

• Designed to cover out-of-pocket costs related to a planned or unplanned hospitalization for an illness, injury, surgery or having a baby.
• Receive cash benefits for a covered hospitalization, according to the benefit summary. The Hospital Indemnity page has more details.
• Examples of covered costs include hospital admission and newborn routine care.

Are Voluntary and Medical Plan Benefits the Same?

No, they are different. Think of voluntary benefits as supplemental insurance for your medical benefits. Medical plans pay doctors and hospitals directly for costs related to your care, but those plans don't cover 100% of the cost, leaving you to come up with the rest. They also don't cover other expenses that health events might impact, like day care and rent, if you're out of work.

The dropdown on the Your Health page on Your Carilion Rewards has more information on each voluntary benefit plan. For questions, contact the HR Service Center at hrservicecenter@carilionclinic.org.