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
LOLA W. BRABHAM
Acting Commissioner
NY19-15
TO: New York State Agency Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: NYS HBA Webinars May 21 & 22
DATE: May 9, 2019
Dear New York State Agency Health Benefits Administrators,
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your dedicated service as Health Benefits Administrators (HBAs). I understand how broad and nuanced the New York State Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP) can be. HBAs are required to serve the needs of their agency’s enrollees while following the many rules and regulations of the program. It can often be a juggling act, and you can always be counted on to meet enrollees’ needs.
As the Director of the Department of Civil Service Employee Benefits Division (EBD), I encourage my staff to follow four guiding principles: Courtesy, Communication, Collaboration, and Continuous Improvement. I would like to share this with our HBAs as well. Being courteous makes everyone’s job easier; Communication and Collaboration between EBD staff and HBAs will ensure enrollees receive timely and consistent information about NYSHIP; and working together will lead Continuous Improvement and improving how we well administer NYSHIP and allow us to reach our ultimate goal of a better health insurance program.
As a way of assisting all of you in doing your jobs even better, the New York State Department of Civil Service Employee Benefits Division will be holding an online training webinar open to all New York State agency HBAs. The training will cover a vast array of topics including, but not limited to, the benefits available to employees, eligibility for benefits, cost of benefits, how employment status affects benefits, retirement, and Medicare. The training will also discuss where to find and how to use resources available to HBAs, such as the new and improved HBA Manual, HBA Memos, and NYSHIP publications.
The live webinar will be held over two days, with sessions to be conducted on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 and Wednesday, May 22, 2019 from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM with a live Q&A session to follow. Please note, its recommended participants attend both sessions as different topics will be covered in each session. If you would like to join the training, please send an e-mail to Michael.Jones@cs.ny.gov with your name, phone number, email address, and agency number. We look forward to ‘seeing’ you there!
Sincerely,
Jim DeWan
Director, Employee Benefits Division