Public Employee Press

City threatens to end PICA program

The city announced last month that it plans to shut down the PICA drug program Jan. 31. The program pays for municipal employees’ psychotropic, injectable, chemotherapy and asthma drugs.

In a Dec. 13 letter to the Municipal Labor Committee, Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley said the city would end the PICA plan because soaring costs are exhausting funds designated for the drugs. As PEP went to press, union officials were urging the city to continue negotiations to address the PICA funding problems.

Roberts reassures members
“As the unions try to resolve this dispute, we will do everything we can to ensure that there is no interruption in these benefits for DC 37 members,” said Lillian Roberts, DC 37 executive director and MLC secretary.

In addition to its main function of equalizing the costs of the HIP and GHI health plans, the Stabilization Fund has been financing the four-year-old PICA program.

In October, Mr. Hanley wrote MLC Chair and Teachers President Randi Weingarten, raising the possibility of closing PICA and shifting the coverage back to union benefit funds or health insurance providers.

In a subsequent meeting, the MLC, which coordinates health and welfare benefit bargaining for all the city unions, proposed steps to address the financial bleeding of the Stabilization Fund, which is being drained by PICA expenses of about $140 million a year.

In a Dec. 16 letter to Mr. Hanley, Ms. Weingarten sharply criticized the city’s “unilateral” decision to close the program and asked the city to continue talks on funding alternatives.