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Health Insurance Options

Eligibility

The following employees are eligible for health insurance coverage for themselves and their eligible dependents at the group rate:

  • Full-time faculty and staff
  • Part-time faculty and staff who are at least 50% FTE

NYSHIP Choices & Plan Rates

NYSHIP online

NYSHIPonline is your online tool for health benefits information. The NYSHIP Online Guidelines flyer can assist you with the navigation of this site.

NYSHIPonline also provides a NYSHIP Plan Comparison tool:

  1. Under Active Employees, select "I am a New York State Active Employee (NY),
  2. then choose your Group (Negotiating Unit) and whether you are in the NYS Empire Plan or an HMO (Blue Choice, MVP of Rochester, BCBS of WNY, Independent Health, etc.),
  3. then choose "Health Benefits Option Transfer",
  4. then choose "Rates and Health Plan Choices",
  5. and then click on the NYSHIP Plan Comparison link.

Health Insurance Information

NYSHIP Opt-out Program

Eligible employees* who can demonstrate and attest to having other employer-sponsored group health insurance may elect to opt-out of NYSHIP's Empire Plan or Health Maintenance Organizations. Employees who elect to opt-out of NYSHIP will receive $1,000 for waiving individual coverage or $3,000 for waiving family coverage. This amount will be credited to bi-weekly paychecks as taxable income over the plan year. Unless newly eligible to enroll, employees must be enrolled in NYSHIP Individual or Family coverage prior to April 1st of the previous plan year to be eligible to opt-out of that coverage. In order to participate, employees must have other employer-sponsored group health insurance. 

*UUP-represented employees are not eligible for the opt-out program.

There are two times a year when employees may elect to opt-out of coverage:

  1. as newly eligible for health benefits
  2. for current NYSHIP enrollees - during the option transfer period.

Only employees who experience a qualifying event will be allowed to withdraw their opt-out election and enroll in a health insurance plan mid-year.

Enrolling in the opt-out program requires a NYS Health Insurance Transaction Form (PS404), the Health Insurance Opt-out Attestation Form (PS409), a copy of other employer-sponsored health insurance card.

Affordable Care Act Postings

Retirement Coverage

If you meet specific criteria, you will be eligible to continue your health insurance in retirement. In general, you must have completed ten (10) years of service to the College, be a member of a state administered retirement system and be enrolled in one of the health insurance programs at the time of retirement.

Prescription Drug Program

The Prescription Drug Program allows you and your eligible dependents to purchase prescription drugs at minimal cost. The plan has a co-pay feature when you have a prescription filled at a participating pharmacy (any pharmacy displaying a green NPA Participating Pharmacy decal). To encourage the use of generic equivalents and reduce the overall cost of prescription drug plans, this plan has a mandatory generic reimbursement program.

You may obtain a prescription drug written for a brand name when there is no existing generic equivalent and pay the deductible amount. You may choose a generic equivalent, when available, and pay only the deductible amount.

When a brand name prescription drug has an existing generic equivalent, you can still get the brand name, but you will be responsible for the difference between the cost of the brand name drug and the cost of the generic equivalent, plus the co-pay amount. Pharmacies have requested to charge the difference between the brand name average wholesale price, or the posted price, whichever is less than the generic equivalent price.