WELCOME to the Retired State Employees Association website.
The RSEA is an independent, volunteer-driven, not-for-profit organization of retired State of Illinois employees and their survivors.
Last year State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS) had nearly 70,000 retirees and survivors receiving over $2.1 billion in retirement annuities - those are not small numbers. While others in Illinois may fixate on the $2.1 billion, we want to show the influence of tens of thousands of retirees speaking with a unified voice.
We hope you will join us in our efforts. Your membership is important to the RSEA, our retirees, and to you. The more members an organization has, the stronger it becomes, and we use that strength to protect the rights and benefits of State retirees. Our membership dues allow us to fund our efforts to show elected officials and other policymakers that State retirees are actively interested in decisions that affect us.
February's Membership Meeting to host representatives from CMS and AETNA.
This is a reminder for those RSEA members who have questions about their AETNA health insurance, we will have representatives from CMS and AETNA on hand at this month's membership meeting (February 28th). This may be time to bring your concerns to someone capable of answering your questions.
SERs has retiree workshops scheduled for Springfield and Chicago on February 29th. They need more attendees; if they don’t have more people register within the next day or two, they will cancel them. If you know any state employees thinking of retiring, please let them know about this. The link is below:
Understanding Your Retirement Benefits https://ilsrs.illinois.gov/sers/resources/workshops-and-seminars/uyb.html
The Understanding Your Retirement Benefits workshop is designed to help you understand your benefits and the services SERS offers. The workshop helps retirees and survivors understand the elections made at retirement, member services account information, and annual statements and relevant forms, and provides general insurance information. Parking is available in the front and sides of building; Dress in layers, temperature in classroom varies. Chicago - Michael A. Bilandic Building February 29th, 2024 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM 160 N. LaSalle Street 5th Floor Chicago, IL 60601 Spaces Remaining: 37 Springfield - State Retirement Systems February 29th, 2024 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM 2101 S. Veterans Parkway Springfield, IL 62704 Spaces Remaining: 43
New TRAIL ID cards are in the mail -
New TRAIL ID cards are being mailed out the last week of December 2023. Be on the lookout for your new ID card and give it to all your providers so that claims filed after January 1, 2024, will have the correct information attached.
Confirm your Explanation of Benefits (EOF) Preference with AETNA -
PRINTED Explanation of Benefits (EOB’s) after January 1, 2024. a. The selection of digital or paper EOB’s must be reconfirmed annually. b. Call Aetna Customer Service to request your preference of digital or printed Medical EOB’s and prescription EOB’s (the phone number is on the back of your new ID card) OR Log in to the Aetna website, select the drop down in the right-hand corner by your name, select Profiles and Preferences, under Preferences select Paperless.Make your preferred selection for Medical EOB’s. Proceed to the selections at the top of the page and choose Prescriptions, about halfway down the page select Pharmacy Explanation of Benefits Preferences, select Communication preferences, choose your preference for Pharmacy EOB’s.
Verify your Address and Phone Number with AETNA -
ADDRESS: The address of the member must match the address that the Social Security Administration has on file. If they do not match, NOTHING will be mailed from AETNA. AETNA will attempt to contact the member to correct the issue. You can call AETNA customer service or login to the AETNA website to verify the address.
PHONE NUMBER: Be sure that all members have phone numbers on file with AETNA and have indicated whether you want TEXT messages. If the member is a dependent and has no personal phone numbers are on file, the phone number on file for the retired state employee who is the dependent’s sponsor will be used. Call AETNA customer service or login to the Aetna website to verify the phone number and message settings.
The Benefits of Membership
The RSEA advocates for its membership by monitoring proposed legislation that may affect retirement benefits, contacting legislators, and even making proposed changes when needed.
Other member benefits include a monthly newsletter (The Reporter), interesting guest speakers at our monthly meetings (ranging from representatives of the Alzheimer’s Association to gubernatorial candidates), and access to our Facebook group (which allows us to stream our monthly meetings to our members who might live outside the central Illinois region).
We Are Moving Beginning in January 2023, the location of our monthly Springfield membership meeting is moving to Springfield First United Methodist Church, located at 2941 S. Koke Mill Road, Springfield, IL (on the Northwest corner of Koke Mill Rd and Wabash Ave). The meetings will still be held at 1:30 p.m. on the last Wednesday of the months January through October.
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