Department of Civil Service

PE02-05
PA02-03

TO: Participating Agencies & Participating Employers Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: Faxing information
DATE: March 7, 2002

Recently the Division implemented a new correspondence imaging system of file retention. All agencies were instructed to fax information and transactions that needed urgent attention to 518-485-5590. We also notified you via your March bill of this new fax number. In memo’s PA01-42 and PE01-24 additonal information was provided to you as to the format that needed to be followed when sending faxes.

There has been much confusion regarding this process and we continue to receive faxes with multiple enrollees listed. Even if a fax is sent with individual 503.1’s/404’s but faxed as one transmission under one cover sheet, they are batched to one (1) document by the fax server and they cannot be correctly indexed to an enrollee’s identification number. In this situation, you will need to individually fax each letter/form under separate cover.

Also, we would like to reemphasize the purpose of faxing information rather than sending letters or enrollment transactions through the regular mail. Faxing of information should only be used for situations that need immediate processing of an enrollment or an urgent correction to information already on file which has resulted in the enrollee or dependent being denied services or has had claims reject. Any other situations should be sent through the regular mail. If a situation becomes urgent, please phone 518-485-6619 or 518-457-5847 for instructions on how to handle this particular situation.

We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this new process may have caused.