The NYC Medicare Advantage Plus Plan, a Custom Program for City Retirees, will not be implemented on January 1, 2022.
Joint Statement from the Office of Labor Relations, the Alliance and the Municipal Labor Committee Regarding 2022 Health Benefits Program for City Retirees.
In July, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Labor Relations Commissioner Renee Campion announced an agreement with the Municipal Labor Committee to implement the NYC Medicare Advantage Plus Plan, a custom program for City retirees. Two companies that were not selected following the fair and competitive procurement process have filed lawsuits challenging the award of the contract to the Alliance. Those lawsuits were dismissed by the Court on October 21, 2021.
A group of City retirees also filed a lawsuit challenging the City’s decision to implement the NYC Medicare Advantage Plus Plan. In that case, the Judge has requested a revised implementation plan and has extended the date for retirees to decide whether they want to opt-out of the plan. The judge has put the plan on hold until that issue is resolved. This, of course, affects when the plan can be implemented. We recently learned that the judge is not expected to decide these issues any earlier than the second week of December. A new date for implementation will be announced after a decision by the Court.
Our priority right now is to keep our retirees informed of these updates so that they know how this process will affect their health benefits in 2022. Our goal is to ensure as little disruption as possible as we work to provide high quality healthcare to our retirees and their dependents.
In that spirit, below please find a few key points about what we know now and how it impacts our retirees:
- Until there is a Court decision, no retirees will be moved into the new Medicare Advantage plan. Retirees will remain in the plan they were in for 2021 unless they utilized the once in a lifetime option to change plans or transferred plans during the annual transfer period. Retirees do not have to take any action at this time.
- The EmblemHealth / Empire BlueCross BlueShield Senior Care plan will remain premium-free until the new Medicare Advantage plan is implemented.
- Once the Court announces an implementation date, we will notify retirees of the period of time they will have to opt out of the Medicare Advantage plan. As soon as we have an approved implementation date from the Court, we will advise retirees. The most current information we have will be posted on the OLR website at www.1nyc.gov/site/olr/index.page and the Alliance website at https://nyc-ma-plus.empireblue.com/.
We will continue to keep our retirees updated on any developments.
For additional information, you can call the special Alliance call center at 1-833-325-1190, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Learn more at NYC.GOV website.