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News

Sign Up for a 2025 Flexible Spending Account Before December 16

[November 18, 2024] The enrollment deadline for the 2025 Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) is December 16, 2024. You can elect to set up a Health Care FSA, a Dependent Care FSA, or both. Complete the enrollment form and turn it in to your site’s Personnel Office.

Money goes into your FSA via regular, equal deductions each payday, starting on January 10. Your contribution is subtracted from your wages before federal, state, and social security taxes are calculated, so putting money into an FSA can potentially reduce your tax bill.

There is no monthly administration fee for Bright Wood’s FSAs administered by HealthEquity.

Health Care FSA:

The maximum annual contribution amount is $3,300.

You can use the funds in your Health Care FSA to pay 1) insurance deductibles, 2) your coinsurance portion, and 3) certain medical, dental, prescription, vision, and hearing expenses not covered by Bright Wood’s Health and Wellness Plan.

See a list of qualifying medical expenses here: https://healthequity.com/qme

2025 Health Care FSA holders can roll over as much as $660 into a 2026 account. Just be sure you set up a 2026 Health Care FSA account to receive the funds; otherwise, you will lose them.

Learn more about Health Care FSAs: https://healthequity.com/learn/flexible-spending-account

Dependent Care FSA:

The maximum annual contribution is $5,000 for individuals or married couples filing jointly or $2,500 for a married person filing separately.

You can use the funds in your Dependent Care FSA to cover the care of a child less than 13 years old (including daycare, preschool, before and after-school care, summer day camps, etc.) or a disabled dependent adult.

See a list of qualifying dependent care expenses here: https://www2.healthequity.com/learn/dependent-care-expenses

Rolling over Dependent Care FSA funds between plan years is not an option; it remains a “use-or-lose” benefit.

Learn more about Dependent Care FSAs: https://healthequity.com/learn/dcfsa

FSA Enrollment Form

Contact Bright Wood Personnel at 541-475-7799 with questions about FSAs or the enrollment form.

New: Three Free Health Care Visits Per Calendar Year

[April 24, 2024] Starting May 1, participants in Bright Wood’s Health and Wellness Plan (BWHWP) are entitled to three free in-office visits per calendar year with preferred providers for:

primary care treatment of injury or illness and/or
behavioral health treatment of mental health or chemical dependency

The three visits can be with different preferred providers and a combination of physical and mental health care.

On their fourth and subsequent visits, BWHWP participants who’ve met their deductible and are seeing a preferred provider will owe the following coinsurance payment per visit:

Plus Option: 20%
Basic Option: 30%

Find a Preferred Provider

Leaving the Madras Benefits Fair with information and bags of goodies.

Happy Feet, Happy Wallet: Bright Wood Offering a $50 Subsidy for Better Footwear

[April 3, 2024] Bright Wood partnered with the feet experts at Lehigh CustomFit to help people find the footwear they need to feel better at the end of the day and avoid injuries.

Lehigh starts by scanning your feet in 3D. In just a few seconds, you will know your exact size and if you have any issues that can cause pain and fatigue. The tech will give you a card with your customized foot care recommendations. Lehigh may recommend:

Customized Aetrex orthotics to correct alignment problems causing foot, knee, and back pain.
OS1st compression socks to relieve foot and leg swelling.
The best-fitting shoe styles for your feet.

Bright Wood associates who purchase shoes, orthotics, or compression socks on the Brightwood.LehighSafetyShoes.com website are eligible for a $50 one-time subsidy. You can pay with a credit card or deduct the cost of your new footwear from your next paycheck (or split the cost between up to four pay periods).

Your friends and family can also purchase shoes, orthotics, and compression socks at the Bright Wood rate on the website. The True Fit app can help them find better-fitting shoes even without a foot scan.

60-Year-Old Tuition-Assistance Program Still Helping Bright Wood Families Today

[May 19, 2023] Bright Wood’s Children’s Educational Tuition Assistance Program (CETAP) provides financial assistance for post-high school education ranging from college to trade school for employees’ dependent children.

The company has distributed over $1 million in CETAP funds since the early 1960s when founder Carl Peterson established the program.

Contact Bright Wood’s Personnel Department at 541-475-7799 between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to learn more and apply.

Need an Alternative Work Schedule?
Consider the Weekend Shift

[March 23, 2023] Several Madras plants have added --or soon will – weekend shifts that start on Friday and end on Sunday. These are 12-hour shifts, so you work 36 hours in three days and then have four days off. Weekenders qualify for full-time Bright Wood benefits.

Eye Safety Starts Before You Get Out of Your Car

By Jim Sanders, Safety Manager

[March 9, 2023] Bright Wood has suffered 17 recordable incidents in the last three years involving an object in someone’s eye. In other words, five to six people suffer eye injuries annually.

History shows the majority of our eye injuries occur outside. If everyone wore their eye protection as soon as they arrived at work (before leaving their vehicles) and continued wearing it until they returned to their cars after work, we’d all be a lot safer. This is in fact, Bright Wood policy.

Learn More

Image by Andreas Breitling from Pixabay

New Program Helps Plan Members Save Money on Generic Medications

[February 23, 2023] Bright Wood’s Health and Wellness Plan (BWHWP) members now have access to Price Edge, a new cost-saving program from Optum Rx. The tool automatically kicks in whenever Plan participants use their BWHWP card while filling prescriptions for generic medications at participating pharmacies.

There are typically two price options for every prescription you fill: the with-insurance rate and the without-insurance one. According to Optum Rx, their price is lower 90 percent of the time because they can negotiate better fees with the drug companies due to their market share. Sometimes, however, it is cheaper not to use the Plan.

The Cost Edge tool benefits BWHWP members by:

Automatically giving you the lowest out-of-pocket cost for generic medications.
Ensuring that generic drug purchases count towards your deductible and out-of-pocket maximum, regardless of whether or not you use your insurance.
Tracking all your prescriptions in one system that can trigger alarms when two drugs should not be taken at the same time.
Lowering the cost of some over-the-counter (OTC) medications if you have a prescription. However, OTC items not covered by the Plan will not count toward your deductible and out-of-pocket maximum.

Visit OptumRx.com or download their app to learn more about the Cost Edge tool, find in-network pharmacies, and research drug prices. You can also call Optum Rx at 1-855-505-8107 if you have questions.

Making Prescription Safety Glasses Affordable

[August 22, 2022] Oregon Bright Wood associates are now eligible to purchase prescription safety glasses from Walmart’s Vision Centers in Redmond and Bend at a substantial discount.

Bright Wood will pay for the prescription lenses for your new safety glasses while you are only responsible for purchasing the frames, which run from $9 up to $29.

To participate, you need to present the Walmart Vision Center with:

A voucher that is only available from Bright Wood's Personnel Department
A valid vision prescription

Call Bright Wood’s Personnel Department at 541-475-7799 with questions.