Department of Civil Service

New York State Health Insurance Program: Health Insurance Premiums for Participating Employers

In the New York State Health Insurance Program, the Department of Civil Service administers employee health insurance programs for State agencies and other participating employers (public authorities and local government agencies). The Department bills the public authorities and local government agencies for their participation in the Program, and then pays the insurance carriers that provide insurance coverage to their covered employees.

We examined the timeliness and accuracy of the billing process. We found that the billings and collections were timely, and the billings were, for the most part, accurate. However, some of the bills were not accurate because the Department’s records were not fully updated when some of the covered employees changed employers (switching from a public authority to a State agency, or vice versa). As a result, the affected participating employers (three public authorities) were either underbilled or overbilled for their covered employees. We recommended that these errors be corrected and controls be developed to prevent such errors in the future. Department officials reported that the State should realize a net recovery of $565,671 when the errors we identified are corrected.

For a complete copy of Report 2007-S-83 click here.