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.
GOVERNOR
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL SERVICE
ALBANY, NEW YORK 12239
www.cs.ny.gov
NY11-24
TO: New York State Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: August 2011 Empire Plan Special Report for CSEA
DATE: August 24, 2011
We will soon mail the August 2011 Empire Plan Special Report for CSEA, that describes changes affecting NYSHIP coverage effective October 1, 2011 as a result of the recently ratified contract between the State of New York and CSEA.
The Empire Plan Special Report includes:
Negotiated Changes Effective October 1, 2011; NYSHIP Changes; Federal Health Care Changes; October 1, 2011 Benefit Changes and the October 1, 2011 Empire Plan Copayments for CSEA
Distribution of Reports
The publication will be mailed to enrollee homes in August 2011. We will send you a separate supply of the Special Report and Preventive Care Coverage Chart equal to 1 percent of your affected enrollment. You may order additional copies of the 2011 Empire Plan Flexible Formulary drug list on HBA Online (see below).
Publications available on our web site: https://www.cs.ny.gov
Please check our web site for new publications. We generally post publications when we sign off for printing. That means you can see the publications before enrollees start receiving them.
Ordering Publications
You may order additional copies of the Special Report, Preventive Care Coverage Chart and 2011 Empire Plan Flexible Formulary drug list by using HBA Online. From the Department of Civil Service homepage, https://www.cs.ny.gov, select the Benefit Programs button from the left hand navigation. Then click on HBA Online. Open Publications & Forms, select the NY employees tab and the appropriate group (CSEA) to order publications online. These publications will also be included in the Quick Order packages, which are only available to order on HBA Online. If you need help accessing HBA Online, please call the Help Desk.
If you are unsure of how to order publications or have questions about this distribution, please call the Communications Unit at 518-457-7577.