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.
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TO: Participating Agency/Participating Employer Chief Executive Officers & Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: David Boland, Director of the Employee Benefits Division (EBD)
SUBJECT: 2015 NYSHIP Regional Meetings for Participating Agencies and Participating Employers
DATE: July 29, 2015
This year EBD will be holding webinar sessions for Participating Agencies and Participating Employers in place of the traditional regional meetings. The webinar format provides EBD the opportunity to reach our audience with greater accessibility and efficiency, and attendees will have the ability to review the presentation at a later time. Additionally, it is anticipated that we will be able to provide future informational webinar sessions throughout the year, as needed. This change will help facilitate EBD’s ongoing effort to connect with NYSHIP agencies and enhance our communication with agencies.
Consistent with the information provided in previous years, EBD staff will present information concerning benefit and program updates, NYSHIP policies, projected 2015 Empire Plan experience and projected 2016 Empire Plan premium rates. EBD staff will also be able to address questions presented by attendees during the sessions.
Prospective attendees will be able to register for one of several webinar sessions scheduled this fall. Information regarding meeting dates, registration, agenda and instructions on how to join the meeting will be forthcoming. You will need to test your current computer software well ahead of the meeting date to ensure it meets the system requirements for webinar access. If you wait until the meeting dates are announced to test your system and find that your system does not meet the requirements, you may be unable to register for the meeting of your choice.
This test can be done at the following link: https://www.webex.com/test-meeting.html. If you experience technical difficulty when testing your system, we suggest you first contact your system administrator. If this does not resolve the problem, you should call 1-866-229-3239, which can be found when accessing the above link. We have also enclosed a system requirement list titled CISCO WEBEX WEB CONFERENCING.
We are excited to be able to provide this new service to our Participating Agencies and Participating Employers and look forward to your participation.