Drew Parker <abp@vantive.com>

Chiron Corporation, a Biotech firm in Emeryville, California, recently
announced to its employees the availability of benefits for domestic partners.

My partner works for Chiron, but is not on this alias.  Here is what I have 
found out about the policies:


Medical and Dental benefits are both available at the same rates as for
Spouses.  Depending on the plan selected, Chiron pays for some portion of
the costs.  The employee is responsible for the taxes on the benefits' value.
Children of domestic partners can also be covered.  I believe that other 
benefits related to spouses have now been extended to include
domestic partners.

Employees and Domestic partners must complete a form that declares their
partnership.  The partners must reside at the same address, and cannot be
blood relatives.  An employee can declare only one partner at a given time,
but I don't believe that there is any waiting period to cover a new partner
after notification that a previous partnership is no longer in effect.

The process by which the employees obtained these benefits sounds like it
was relatively painless, compared to my experiences in attempting to get the
benefits at Sun and here at Vantive. The HR management got approval for the 
package
without much visible fuss, in response to employee requests for the benefits.

I will try to obtain more detailed information about the plan and/or process
if anyone is interested.

Drew Parker