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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.

New York State of Opportunity

ANDREW M. CUOMO
Governor
LOLA W. BRABHAM
Acting Commissioner

NY18-06

TO: Agency Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: Income Protection Plan (IPP) Transition to NYBEAS
DATE: February 28, 2018

The New York Benefits Eligibility and Accounting System (NYBEAS) has recently been modified to streamline processes for the Income Protection Plan (IPP). The following enhancements have been made: 

  • Historic IPP Eligibility and Enrollment information has been migrated from a retired legacy system to NYBEAS. Employees who were eligible for IPP short term disability (STD) or long term disability (LTD) benefits prior to January 1, 2015 were migrated to NYBEAS with an effective date of January 1, 2015.
  • Employee enrollment in IPP has been automated through a weekly payroll interface and, as a result, Form PS-1103 NYS Income Protection Plan Enrollment is longer required.
  • Health Benefits Administrators (HBAs) are now able to view employee IPP eligibility and enrollment information using NYBEAS. 

For more detailed information, please refer to the IPP Administration Manual.

MIGRATION OF IPP ELIGIBILITY INTO NYBEAS

Enrollees who were eligible for the IPP benefits prior to January 1, 2015 were converted into NYBEAS with a Short Term Disability (STD) and Long Term Disability (LTD) effective date of January 1, 2015. 

NYBEAS will reflect the actual STD and LTD effective dates for enrollees who became eligible for IPP Benefits on or after January 1, 2015. These dates are based on their IPP Benefits eligibility date and state service date. Please see the examples below. 

Example 1: John Smith became eligible for IPP benefits May 1, 2015 and has a service date of February 1,1998.  The STD and LTD effective date is May 1, 2015. 

Example 2:  Jane Smith became eligible for IPP benefits July 1,2016 and has a service date of July 1,2016.  The STD effective date is July 1, 2016 and the LTD effective date is January 1,2017.

NYBEAS & PaySERV INTERFACE FOR IPP

Employee IPP eligibility is updated in NYBEAS on a biweekly basis through the NYBEAS interface with PayServ. This process will evaluate payroll information for employees to identify newly eligible employees in IPP, as well as to identify employees who are no longer eligible for IPP. 

Examples of the information that is evaluated are: 

  • The employee’s employment status changes (new M/C employee, retirement, separation, death); or
  • The employee’s negotiating unit changes; or
  • The employee’s pay basis (annual, hourly, etc.) changes; 

In order to be eligible for IPP, employees must be M/C or DC-37 represented, paid on an annual salary basis and working half-time or more. Employees may also be eligible for IPP if there are designated as Special Enrollees in accordance with 4 CRR-NY 78.9.

IPP TRANSACTIONS

NYBEAS enrollment information will be based on the transactions processed in PayServ. HBAs will be able to view enrollment transactions, including cancellations and enrollees who are off the payroll on an STD or LTD leave. 

FUTURE ENHANCEMENT: IPP REPORTS

EBD is working to provide additional enhancements to allow agencies to run IPP eligibility and claim status reports in NYBEAS. The availability of these reports will be announced at a future time. 

For information on the Income Protection Plan (IPP) page in NYBEAS, please contact the IPP Unit at 518-473-3496 or refer to the IPP Administration Manual.