N.Y. Civil Service Law § 163: Eligibility for benefits

§ 163. Eligibility for benefits. 1. All persons in the service of the

state, whether elected, appointed or employed, who elect to participate

in such health benefit plan shall be eligible to participate therein,

provided, however, that the president may adopt such regulations as he

or she may deem appropriate excluding temporary, part time or

intermittent employment.

2. The contract or contracts shall provide for health benefits for

retired employees of the state and of the state colleges of agriculture,

home economics, industrial labor relations and veterinary medicine, the

state agricultural experiment station at Geneva, and any other

institution or agency under the management and control of Cornell

university as the representative of the board of trustees of the state

university of New York, and the state college of ceramics under the

management and control of Alfred university as the representative of the

board of trustees of the state university of New York, and their spouses

and dependent children as defined by the regulations of the president,

on such terms as the president may deem appropriate, and the president

may authorize the inclusion in the plan of the employees and retired

employees of public authorities, public benefit corporations, school

districts, special districts, district corporations, municipal

corporations excluding active employees and retired employees of cities

having a population of one million or more inhabitants whose

compensation is or was before retirement paid out of the city treasury,

or other appropriate agencies, subdivisions or quasi-public

organizations of the state, including active members of volunteer fire

and volunteer ambulance companies serving one or more municipal

corporations pursuant to subdivision seven of section ninety-two-a of

the general municipal law, and their spouses and dependent children as

defined by the regulations of the president. Notwithstanding any law or

regulation to the contrary, active members of volunteer ambulance

companies serving one or more municipal corporations pursuant to

subdivision seven of section ninety-two-a of the general municipal law

shall be eligible for health benefits regardless of the amount of funds

derived from public sources. Any such corporation, district, agency or

organization electing to participate in the plan shall be required to

pay its proportionate share of the expenses of administration of the

plan in such amounts and at such times as determined and fixed by the

president. All amounts payable for such expenses of administration shall

be paid to the commissioner of taxation and finance and shall be applied

to the reimbursement of funds previously advanced for such purposes.

Neither the state nor any other participant in the plan shall be charged

with the particular experience attributable to the employees of the

participant, and all dividends or retroactive rate credits shall be

distributed pro-rata based upon the number of employees of such

participant covered by the plan.

3. The president shall adopt regulations prescribing the conditions

under which an employee or retired employee may elect to participate in

or withdraw from the plan. Such regulations may also prescribe

conditions under which an employee whose service terminates and who is

entitled to a vested retirement allowance may continue to participate in

the plan; such condition shall include a requirement that such person

pay the full cost of such coverage following termination of his

employment and prior to commencement of the payment of his retirement

allowance, unless such person becomes currently entitled to, but defers

receipt of, a retirement allowance or pension from a retirement or

pension plan or system administered and operated by the state of New

York, or a civil division thereof, including the New York state

teachers' retirement system and the optional retirement programs

established under article three, part V, and article eight-B of the

education law.

4. Any public authority, public benefit corporation, school district,

special district, district corporation, municipal corporation, or other

agency, subdivision or quasi-public organization of the state, whose

employees and retired employees are authorized to be included in the

plan as provided by subdivision two, may elect to participate in such

plan. Any such election shall be exercised by the adoption of a

resolution by its governing body and, in the case of any municipal

corporation where a resolution of its governing body is required by law

to be approved by any other body or officer, such resolution shall also

be approved by such other body or officer. Any such election may be made

with respect to inclusion in the plan of both its employees and its

retired employees at the same time, or may be made only with respect to

its employees alone and at another time with respect to its retired

employees. Any such authority, corporation, district, agency,

subdivision or organization making such election shall become a

participating employer under such plan, subject to and in accordance

with the regulations of the president relating thereto.

5. The chief fiscal officer of any such participating employer shall

be authorized to deduct from the wages or salary paid to its employees

who are participants in such health benefit plan the sums required to be

paid by them under such plan. Each such participating employer is

authorized to appropriate such sums as are required to be paid by it as

its share in connection with the operation of such plan.

6. The president shall have power and authority to make such

inspection of the employment and payroll records of any participating

employer concerning any of its employees who are participants in the

health insurance fund as he may deem necessary.

7. For purposes of eligibility for participation in the health benefit

plan no person shall be deemed to be a state officer or employee or to

be in the service of the state unless his salary or compensation is paid

directly by the state, and no person shall be deemed to be a retired

officer or employee of the state unless his salary or compensation

immediately preceding his retirement was paid directly by the state;

provided, however, that all active and retired justices, judges,

officers and employees of the supreme court, surrogate's court, county

court, family court, civil court of the city of New York, criminal court

of the city of New York and district court in any county, officers and

employees of the office of probation for the courts of New York city

shall be eligible for participation in the health benefit plan whether

or not their salaries are paid or before retirement were paid directly

by the state.

8. Notwithstanding any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary,

where the state and an employee organization representing state officers

and employees who are in positions which are in the collective

negotiating unit established by chapter four hundred three of the laws

of nineteen hundred eighty-three enter into a collectively negotiated

agreement pursuant to article fourteen of this chapter providing that

officers and employees who hold positions in such unit on or after April

first, nineteen hundred eighty-four and who immediately upon termination

from such position are eligible to receive a retirement benefit from

either the New York state or New York city retirement systems shall

continue to be eligible to participate in the employee benefit fund

established by section two hundred six-a of the state finance law, such

officers and employees upon retirement shall continue to participate in

and receive the benefits of such fund as provided in such collectively

negotiated agreement and shall not be eligible to receive and shall not

receive from the statewide health benefit plan established pursuant to

this article coverage for benefits covered by such employee benefit

fund.