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
NY19-25
TO: New York State Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: October 2019 Empire Plan Report
DATE: November 1, 2019
The October 2019 NY Active Empire Plan Report is now available online and will soon be mailed to enrollee homes and agencies. The Report explains changes to The Empire Plan and has important reminders for enrollees, including information on infertility benefits, hospice care coverage, PrEP HIV-prevention medication coverage and modified food products coverage. This Report is for all active NY groups except for UCS-COBANC and PIA, which each have a separate Empire Plan Special Report. See HBA memo NY 19-27 for additional information about these publications.
The mailing also includes the Reporting On Mental Health and Substance Abuse Program publication, the newest addition in the Reporting On series. The publication describes the benefits of choosing mental health and substance use care from a network provider or at a network facility. See HBA memo NY 19-33 for additional information about this publication.
Distribution
This Report will begin to mail to enrollees’ homes in late October to early November. The mail file was pulled from NYBEAS on October 21, 2019, so any enrollee who was not on the file on that date should be provided with a copy. We will send you two copies of the Report, and Reporting On Mental Health and Substance Abuse Program will be shipped separately.
Publications Available on NYSHIP Online: www.cs.ny.gov/employee-benefits
You can also access the Report online under Using Your Benefits from the NYSHIP Online home page.
Ordering Publications
You may order additional copies of the Report and Reporting On Mental Health and Substance Abuse Program on HBA Online under Publications & Forms. Please do not order copies until you have received your shipment.
If you need help accessing HBA Online, contact the ITS Service Desk at 844-891-1786, fixit@its.ny.gov or via chat at https://chat.its.ny.gov. If you are unsure of how to order publications or have questions about this distribution, please call the EBD Communications Unit at 518-457-7577.