Last year, new coverage codes were introduced for medical, dental,
and vision insurance, ending up with these four values: U, UA, UC,
and UAC.  However, coverage codes for legal insurance were not
changed until now, in r1531, which implements those same four
codes.

The changes are similar to those issued in r1440 last year, except
this time limited to the legal plan.  They encompass file maintenance,
the compute, rush checks, and interface files (carriers, CPS, and BCS).
There are no screen changes in either CICS or the web.

R1531 also adds support for the new ARAG Group legal plan (J2),
replacing the Signature Legal Plan (J1).

Initially it was intended that a one-time program would convert old
legal coverage codes to new, but it was realized that with the
demise of the J1 plan, there is no need for that conversion.  Instead,
the PPOT1531 one-time program will look for future (year 2004)
end dates for the J1 plan and change them to 12/31/03 in the BEN
and FCB tables and will create new J2 entries for those employees
with a begin date of 01/01/04.  This program can be run in
report-only or update mode.  Unless you instruct us differently,
we'll just go ahead and update at the appropriate point in time.

TABLE UPDATES
- Data element and code translation transactions provided in the
   release can be applied in production.
- GTN transactions for the new legal plan (340 and 341) are for
   testing only.  We have not yet been issued official templates for
   installing in production, but when we are, we'll need priority number
   and liability fau information from you.
- Similarly, the Benefits Rates transactions given in the release are
   for testing only.  We expect that Base Payroll will issue the
   real ones in early December.

IMPLEMENTATION
   The timing of r1531 (date-mandated) is critical.  Installation must not
happen until after monthly periodic maintenance to begin December
has run, but must be completed prior to the first December compute.
The general sequence of events will look like this:

A - run monthly periodic maintenance to begin December
B - Install the r1531 program code

C - Apply the data element and CTT transactions for r1531.
D - Apply the GTN transactions to establish legal plan code J2
     and establish benefits rates for 2004.  Depending on when this
     information becomes available, this could be, but need not be,
     combined with step C.

E - Next, the installation instructions say to perform step 3 in the
     Year-End Processing Sequence.  This document normally is
     distributed in Payroll Technical meetings, but because we haven't
     had one since last spring, it's included among the r1531 documents.
     I recommend that you print it and begin working out dates when
     you'd like us to run the various year-end processes.

     Step 3 says to run PPP570 (that's our PP*ABA job) in advance
     benefits (ADVC) mode.  Note that it will generate transactions
     that must be processed in an EDB update (step 4).

F - Only then can we run the PPOT1531 one-time program.

May we have your approval to install r1531 after monthly maintenance
to begin December?  It's probably a good idea to get it out of the way
fairly early in the month, given all the other year-end special processing,
but let's not do it the first day after MM.  Note that for Davis the timing
is a little tighter due to the B2 compute scheduled to run on Friday
December 12th.  Any scheduling information you can provide will be
appreciated....

Happy Thanksgiving!

   bvb