There are several kinds of offers available for New York City Employees, and one of those generous and noteworthy offers is the Health Benefits Buy-Out Waiver. This is a genuinely pragmatic, money-saving offer that helps the employees get financially benefitted by giving up claims on their Health Benefits if they are already covered, for that matter. Let’s look at all the important information related to the Health Benefits Buy-Out Waiver for New York City Employees.
- What is Health Benefits Buy-Out Waiver?
The Health Benefits Buy-Out Waiver is an offer, especially for the New York Employees, to give up claim on their health benefits if they are already covered by any medium other than the City health insurance. They can get covered by their spouse’s health insurance as well. In these cases, an employee may give up on health insurance and get a cash incentive annually as an offer. So, this is an excellent offer for those covered twice for health insurance, and it will help them monetarily.
- Details regarding the Incentive Payment:
There are certain things an employee should be aware of before availing of this offer-
- After successful enrolment, the employee would get the cash incentive through installments- twice a year. An employee typically receives the incentive in June and December.
- As the Incentive Payment in exchange for the Health Benefits waiver offer is considered to be an ordinary income, there would be tax applied on the amount. For instance, let’s have a look at the Health Benefits Buy-Out offer for the year 2021-
- $1000 will be given to employees covered through family coverage programs and who give up on City health benefits.
- $500 will be given to employees covered via individual coverage programs and who give up on City health benefits.
- Incentive Benefit Period:
Typically, there are two incentive benefits periods every year offered to the New York City
Employees-
- January 1 through June 30
- July 1 through December 31
One must note that the whole amount would be given to the employees in two easy installments.
- Eligibility Conditions:
Not every single employee can avail of this offer of Health Benefits Buy-Out offer. There are certain terms and conditions. An employee must be covered by these programs to fulfill these conditions and relinquish claim on the City’s health benefits
- New York City health insurance
- The Citywide contract
- The Management Benefits Fund
Apart from being covered by these selected programs, there are certain limitations on the agencies as well. An employee must be associated with these agencies to avail of the Health Benefits Buy-Out offer-
- Mayoralty
- NYC Health + Hospitals (H + H)
- Housing Authority
- City University Of New York
- School Construction Authority
- Department of Education
Apart from these selected agencies, the employees of cultural institutions, libraries, and DOE charter schools may also avail of this offer if covered through individual programs. An employee should contact the Agency Benefits Manager to know more about this.
Apart from fulfilling these conditions, an employee can avail of this offer only if-
- The employee has got insurance under a spouse’s or partner’s or parent’s employer. This must be a non-city New York group health plan.
- The employee may also be insured under a health plan through any other employment option.
However, there are certain instances of exclusion, as well. An employee is not eligible to avail of this offer if they don’t fulfill these conditions.
- If their partner is insured under any City of New York Health plan.
- If they are retired from the City of New York
- If they are covered individually and not via a group plan
- If Medicaid covers them
- If Medicare covers them
- If the worker is on Worker’s Compensation Leave
- If the employee has been covered by 1199; or
- If the employee is covered by the New York State Health Care Exchange.
- Process of Enrollment:
An employee may get enrolled under this program during the annual open enrollment period. After completing the process of enrolment, an employee will remain so until they reinstate their City health benefits.
- Mid-Year Changes:
Depending on certain family status like marriage, divorce, death, birth, etc., an employee may change this plan. There are certain other conditions as well, depending on which an employee may file a withdrawal. To do so, an employee needs to file an MSC Health Benefits Buy-Out Waiver Enrollment/Change Form.
Certain other things an employee needs to be aware of, such as the process of reinstatement of the City’s Health Benefits or what happens when an employee changes their agency. All these can be found on the website of the Office of Labor Relations.