The Empire Plan is a unique health insurance plan designed especially for public employees in New York State. Empire Plan benefits include inpatient and outpatient hospital coverage, medical/surgical coverage, Centers of Excellence for transplants, infertility and cancer, home care services, equipment and supplies, mental health and substance abuse coverage and prescription drug coverage.
ANDREW M. CUOMO
GOVERNOR
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL SERVICE
ALBANY, NEW YORK 12239
www.cs.ny.gov
JERRY BOONE
COMMISSIONER
NY14-33
TO: New York State Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: Premium Contribution Rate Updates for Employees Represented by CSEA
DATE: November 13, 2014
As referred to in memo NY13-22, and mutually agreed upon by the State of New York and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), the Department of Civil Service - Employee Benefits Division (EBD) has completed the development of a NYBEAS transaction which enables New York State agency Health Benefits Administrators (HBAs) to update the salary grade information used to calculate the appropriate health insurance premium contribution rate for employees represented by CSEA. This transaction will provide HBAs with the ability to timely update salary information in NYBEAS coincident with the pay period of an applicable promotion or demotion. This also allows for the calculation of the correct health insurance premium deduction and mitigates the need for special deductions or premium refunds.
Detailed instructions for the “CONTRIBUTION RATE CHANGE TRANSACTION for CSEA REPRESENTED EMPLOYEES” are attached.
EBD will continue to review CSEA payroll information on a quarterly basis and when applicable, will update the premium contribution rate for any affected employees whose salary grade was not updated at the agency level.
Each time a salary update is made that results in a change to the enrollee’s contribution rate, by the HBA or EBD, a letter will be sent to the enrollee notifying them of their health insurance premium deduction change. A sample letter has been attached for your information.
Note: Timely transaction processing will avoid the need to collect retroactive premium from, or refund overpayments to your employees.
If you have questions, please contact the HBA Help Line at 518-474-2780.