Public Employee Press

MetroPlus plan opens to city workers

MetroPlus Health Plan is marketing its plan to municipal employees and retirees during the annual fall open enrollment period of the city’s health-care plans.

This year’s “reopener” — the once-a-year opportunity for health-care subscribers to switch plans — runs through October for city employees.

Ordinarily, retirees can only enroll in a new plan in even-numbered years. But this year, because of MetroPlus’s outreach and Aetna’s offering of new services the city scheduled a special reopener for them in November. Only retirees who aren’t yet eligible for Medicare may enroll in MetroPlus. All active city employees may choose MetroPlus.

“The city offers a lot of choices,” said Willie Chang, the administrator of the DC 37 Health and Security Plan. “If you are dissatisfied with your plan, now is the time to look for an alternative.”

Information about the New York City Health Care Program is available on the Office of Labor Relation’s website at http://www1.nyc.gov/site/olr/health/healthhome.page.

MetroPlus (http://www.metroplus.org) is a subsidiary of the Health and Hospitals Corp. and is the only plan with workers represented by DC 37. DC 37 organized workers at MetroPlus in 2007.

The government-sponsored plan offers health insurance to people living in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

The plan’s network includes 2,000 primary care providers and other specialists. In addition to hospital-based providers, the plan’s subscribers have access to primary and specialty care services at many community-based doctor’s offices and neighborhood family care sites.

The plan offers case management programs to help subscribers with chronic conditions. These include programs for expectant mothers and patients with asthma, diabetes and illnesses requiring complex treatments.

The new health-care plans of DC 37 members become effective on the first payroll date of 2016. For retirees, the effective date is Jan. 1.

Health-care waiver

This year, the city is increasing its incentive for employees to waive their individual or family health coverage. This is an option for DC 37 members who would like to be covered by the plan of their spouse or domestic partner.

The program is boosting the incentive from $500 to $1,500 for individual coverage and from $1,000 to $3,000 for family coverage. The waiver payments are made twice a year.

The savings from the waiver program will count toward the $3.4 billion in total savings sought under a four-year health-care agreement between the city and the Municipal Labor Committee, which represents city unions on health-care matters.

Based on the current cost of individual coverage ($7,000), the city will save about $5,500 a year for each person who takes the waiver. The city would save about $14,700 on family coverage ($17,000),

“Every little bit helps,” Chang said.