The new Rules of the CERN Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS) will come into effect on 1 September 2017.

The main changes are as follows (references to the relevant articles of the Rules are shown in square brackets):

1. Terminology Main Members of the CHIS will be classified according to their type of membership:
   • Compulsory Members: those who are under a statutory obligation to be members of the CHIS;
   • Post-Compulsory Members: those who choose to continue their cover beyond the period of obligatory or subsidiary membership; and
   • Voluntary Members: associated members of the personnel who join the CHIS on a voluntary basis.
2. Changes affecting Voluntary Members:
   • From 1 September 2017: no new voluntary membership will be possible. [III 3.01]
   • From 1 January 2018: continued voluntary membership will be possible under the following conditions [XV 1.03]:
     • the Main Member must hold a valid carte de légitimation; otherwise, membership will automatically terminate on 31 December 2017 or on the last day of validity of the carte de légitimation [III 3.02]
     • an application for continuation of membership must be submitted to UNIQA before 31 December 2017 (the relevant form will soon be available from UNIQA). [XV 1.03]
3. Changes affecting certain couples:
   • Couples who are both Main Members will be required to remain Main Members until both of them are entitled to end their membership (today, the first to retire often becomes a dependent of the active spouse). [II 1.02]
4. Changes in benefits:
   • Alternative therapies: treatments by recognised osteopaths, etiopathy therapists and chiropractors [II 3.11] may be reimbursed without a medical prescription, up to a maximum of five sessions per calendar year (for what concerns the period running from 1^st September to 31^st December 2017, this equates to two sessions). [VI 1.04]
   • Voluntary Members will no longer benefit from long-term care benefits, nor from the specific (100%) occupational accident and illness insurance (note: treatments under this heading will be reimbursed under the usual rules).
5. Changes in contributions:
   • For any membership starting or ending during a given month, main contributions will be calculated pro rata temporis. [V 1.02]
   • Changes to the supplementary contributions for spouses who are not themselves Compulsory Members and who use the CHIS as their primary health insurance will come into effect on 1 March 2018; these changes will be announced in detail later.
   • In addition to staff members, fellows and CERN pensioners, former MPEs (e.g. those receiving unemployment benefits from the Organization or awaiting a deferred pension) will be requested to provide CERN with information on their spouse’s primary health insurance and professional income. A supplementary contribution will be required where the spouse uses the CHIS as his or her primary health insurance and receives a gross monthly income above 2500 CHF.

Please note that this is an overview and summary of the main changes; Members are invited to refer to the full text of the new CHIS Rules to determine their full rights and obligations.

Separate notifications will be sent to those members who need to take special action or who are affected by specific changes. CHIS members who are not members of the CERN personnel (in particular, CERN pensioners) will receive information by post.

Finally, as of 1 August 2017, all CHIS members will be able to contact UNIQA (+41.22.767 27 30 or uniqa.assurances@cern.ch) to obtain further information.