CalPERS staff told trustees on Sept. 16 that open enrollment for health benefits had begun and the agency’s call center handled heavy volume. Staff reported that a call center operation received more than 8,000 calls on the first day of open enrollment and that average wait time was about 16½ minutes, although calling later in the day reduced waits to roughly four minutes.

Staff provided updates on the 2025 benefit verification exercise and other overpayment initiatives. CalPERS reported it identified about $3.5 million in overpayments in the current verification cycle and collected approximately $2.6 million (about 74%). The death‑verification vendor SoCure reported 598 confirmed deaths since 2024 that CalPERS had associated with $5.9 million in overpayments; CalPERS said it had collected nearly $4.7 million (about 80%) of that amount. Over the last two years, CalPERS said it had recovered nearly $151 million in overpayments from various initiatives.

Staff said the agency had completed a baseline assessment for myCalPERS self‑service registration and that 62% (about 1.5 million) of members had registered with a myCalPERS account as of Aug. 15; the communication push aims to increase registrations to improve member outreach and reduce undeliverable mail. CalPERS also announced member education activities, including a new retiree webinar scheduled for Dec. 9 and expanded Spanish‑language class offerings; staff said a Spanish retirement class piloted in Orange received a 100% satisfaction rating from 72 attendees.

CalPERS reminded members that open enrollment runs 26 days through Oct. 10 and encouraged use of online resources and planned webinars, including a CVS Caremark‑hosted pharmacy transition webinar. Staff said it will continue close monitoring of call‑center metrics and partner performance to reduce member friction during the plan‑change period.