R1556 can be considered to be primarily a housekeeping release in that
it cleans up some leftovers from the past in an assortment of programs and
copymembers.  The subject area is benefits plans that were phased out
at the end of a year, but required temporary accommodations in program
code to deal with late pay and adjustments, as well as coverage codes
that were changed from 3-tier to 4-tier values.

The following types of code are removed in r1556:

- Temporary code relating to Aetna (phased out at the end of 2002).
- Temporary code relating to Signature Legal Care/J1 (phased out
   at the end of 2003)
- References to pre-2003, obsolete coverage codes

Additional changes in this release include:

- Updating of an internal table in program PPEI199 that identifies plans
   from which the system may de-enroll employees.  Obsolete plans
   are dropped, new plans are added, and some GTN numbers are
   changed.  A detailed list can be found in the release letter.

- Updating of the TIP-HEALTH table in copymember CPWSXTRC.
   This "list of Gross-to-Net Numbers ... identifies reductions to the
   employees' reportable UI wages."  The release letter gives specifics.

TABLE UPDATES

   Table update transactions are provided with which to update the data
element table.  "Obsolete medical plan codes of 'PH' and 'UC' have been
removed from the list of valid medical plan codes.  In addition, obsolete
legal plan code of 'J1' has been removed from the list of valid legal plan
codes."  Transactions are also provided with which to update CICS Help.

IMPLEMENTATION

   The recommended timing for installation is "sometime after the March
month end processes have already run so that any existing adjustments
related to the obsolete plan codes in the Consolidated Billings Process
have already been processed for coverage months between December, 2003
and January, 2004."

   May we have your ok to install after completion of March month end
processing?

   bvb