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
Commissioner
NY20-13
PE20-11
TO: Health Benefits Administrators of New York State Agencies and Participating Employers with New York State Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP) Dental and Vision Coverage
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: Update to Vision Plan Information
DATE: July 10, 2020
Effective July 1, 2020, enrollees who have elected both NYSHIP Vision and Dental Plan coverage will no longer be required to submit a full-time student verification form to Davis Vision (Davis). All full-time student verification will be obtained through the NYSHIP Dental Plan vendor, Emblem Health (Emblem), and will be considered adequate proof of full-time student status for the NYSHIP Vision Plan. Dependent children ages 19 through 24 are still required to be a full-time student in order to be eligible for vision benefits. Please review HBA memo NY20-01/ PE20-01 for additional information on the Emblem full-time student verification process and a link to the Emblem full-time student verification form.
As a result of this change, the vision benefit summary booklets have been revised to remove the student verification form. Additionally, the vision full-time student verification form posted on NYSHIP Online (www.cs.ny.gov/employee-benefits) has been replaced with guidance that all student verification is handled through Emblem.
Printed copies of the updated vision summary booklets can be ordered through HBA Online; please note that updated PDFs of each employee group vision booklet are also available on both NYSHIP Online and HBA Online. From the NYSHIP Online homepage, select Other Benefits from the left navigation and click on the vision benefits link. On HBA Online, select the link to the booklet from the group listing under the Vision heading.
For questions related to the process noted above, please contact the HBA Helpline at 518-474-2780.