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.
DAVID A. PATERSON
GOVERNOR
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL SERVICE
ALBANY, NEW YORK 12239
www.cs.ny.gov
NANCY G. GROENWEGEN
COMMISSIONER
NY09-23
SEHP09-09
TO: New York State Agency Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: NYBEAS Upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.0
DATE: May 28, 2009
Overview
On June 9th 2009, a new version of NYBEAS based on the most current release of the supporting PeopleSoft technology will be available. This change was made to ensure that the technical infrastructure behind NYBEAS is supported by the various vendors and that the information in NYBEAS remains secure. In this way, the Department is protecting the investment that New York State has made in the NYBEAS application and the privacy of the information residing in NYBEAS.
Availability of NYBEAS, ARS and MyNYSHIP during Implementation
As a result of the NYBEAS upgrade, certain systems will be unavailable or available with limited functionality as follows:
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Thursday, June 4th |
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Friday, June 5th |
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Saturday, June 6th through Monday, June 8th |
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Tuesday, June 9th |
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Impact of Implementation on Routine Processing
The ability to process transactions, as well as certain batch processing schedules will be impacted as follows:
| NYBEAS Transactions |
No transactions can be processed after 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 4th until the upgrade is completed sometime during the day on Tuesday, June 9th. We recommend that you process any critical transactions well before the 2:00 p.m. deadline on Thursday, June 4th to avoid last minute problems. |
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Monthly Processes |
Routine monthly processes scheduled for Friday, June 5th will run the evening of Thursday, June 4th (with data as of 2:00 p.m.) |
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Other Routine Processing (including NYSTEP Interface, carrier processing, cash receipts) |
Routine batch processing will be suspended from Friday, June 5th through Monday, June 8th, and will resume Tuesday, June 9th. |
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Empire Plan Prescription Drug and Hospital Program - Carrier Updates |
Normally updated daily, these carriers will receive an update reflecting enrollment as of 2:00 on Thursday June 4th during the evening of June 4th. They will receive their next update on the evening of Tuesday June 9th reflecting coverage as of COB on Tuesday June 9th. |
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HMOs, Other Empire Plan Carriers, and NYS Dental and Vision Plans - Carrier Updates |
These carriers receive enrollment updates on a weekly basis based on the information available on NYBEAS at close of business on Wednesdays. This schedule will be unaffected by the upgrade. |
The New NYBEAS Application
The project team balanced the need to take advantage of enhancements to the PeopleSoft technology with the desire to make the transition for NYBEAS users as easy as possible. NYBEAS remains a web-based application. The method you use to arrive at the NYBEAS application and your User ID and Password are unchanged. The work processes and business rules have been preserved as much as possible. Changes to the look and feel of most pages were minimal.
Navigating to Pages within NYBEAS
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The traditional left side menu/breadcrumb navigation in NYBEAS has been modified. The left side menu has a new look and is augmented by a more visual folder structure in the center of the page. Users can navigate using either representation.
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A “Search” box is now available to enable users to locate a page by searching for all or part of the page name.
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A “Favorites” option is available where users can save the path to pages that they frequently use.
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The paths to the various pages have been shortened by removing some of the higher level menu items. A navigation guide specific to HBA users that cross-references the location of each page between the prior version of NYBEAS and the new version is attached.
Changes to the Hire Process
For agencies that process job related changes on NYBEAS, the Hire process now matches more closely the hire process that is delivered as part of standard PeopleSoft applications. Detailed instructions for the new hire process are attached.
If your agency processes job-related changes on NYSTEP rather than NYBEAS, the changes to the hire process do not impact you. All NYBEAS appropriate job-related transactions will continue to be extracted from NYSTEP daily.
Resources
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Navigation Guide - Refer to the attached navigation guide for a cross-reference of the location of each page between the prior version of NYBEAS and the new version.
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Demonstration System – The Demonstration System is a full-sized version of NYBEAS available to NYBEAS users to familiarize themselves with the new system. Instructions to access the Demonstration System are attached. Please access the demonstration system to become familiar with the new navigation. You must use the User ID and Password that you use to access NYBEAS in order to access the Demonstration System. The demonstration system will not be available after the upgrade is complete so please be sure to access it before then.
Prior to the NYBEAS upgrade, agency staff should sign onto the demonstration system and confirm their ability to navigate to all of the pages currently used.
For issues related to logging into the demonstration system please contact the DCS help desk by calling 1-800-422-3671 or 457-5406 or e-mailing your concern to helpdesk@cs.state.ny.us.
Questions
If you have any questions regarding this upgrade, please email nybeasupgrade@cs.state.ny.us.
Attachments:
Hire Process Instructions - NYS | PDF
NYBEAS Demonstration System access | PDF
Navigation Paths NYSTEP Agencies | PDF
Navigation Paths Non-NYSTEP Agencies | PDF