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.
KATHY HOCHUL
Governor
TIMOTHY R. HOGUES
Commissioner
NY23-25
TO: New York State Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: October 2023 Empire Plan Reports for NY Active Groups and NYS Retirees
DATE: October 31, 2023
The October 2023 Empire Plan Reports for NY Active are now available online and will soon be mailed to enrollee homes and agencies. Due to differences in collective bargaining status, there are settled and unsettled versions of the Reports, as follows:
- Settled (NY1480) applies to the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), judges, justices and nonjudicial employees and employees designated Management/Confidential (M/C) of the Unified Court System (UCS) and employees designated M/C; Legislature.
- Unsettled (NY1481) applies to the Agency Police Services Unit (APSU) represented by the Police Benevolent Association of New York State (PBANYS); Council 82 (C-82); District Council 37 (DC-37); New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA); Troopers and Supervisors of the New York State Police represented by the Police Benevolent Association (PBA); and the BCI Unit of the New York State Police represented by the Police Investigators Association (PIA).
Note: Refer to HBA Memo NY 23-24 for information about the October 2023 Special Empire Plan Report for enrollees represented by the Public Employees Federation (PEF) and the United University Professions (UUP).
The Reports explain changes to The Empire Plan and NYSHIP and have important reminders for enrollees, including information on the assignment of benefits for non-participating Medical/Surgical providers, preventive vaccines and boosters updates and the Empire BlueCross name change to Anthem Blue Cross. The unsettled version also includes information about the 2024 In-Network Out-of-Pocket Maximum Limits, the Building Healthy Families Program, the Carelon Behavioral Health name change and the new MHSU benefits for eating disorders and online therapy.
There is also an October 2023 Empire Plan Report for Retirees of NYS agencies and Participating Employers (PEs) (AL2016) and much of the content mirrors that of the settled NY active Report.
Distribution
The Reports will begin to mail to enrollees’ homes in early November. The mail files were pulled from NYBEAS on October 28, 2023, 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 each Report.
Publications Available on NYSHIP Online: www.cs.ny.gov/employee-benefits
You can also access the Reports online under the Using Your Benefits tab on the NYSHIP Online homepage, then click on Current Publications.
Ordering Publications
You may order additional copies of the Reports on HBA Online under Publications & Forms. Please do not order copies until you have received your shipments.
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.