Empire Health Insurance Update

01/17/2008

  • All members who completed the open enrollment form by December 31 are now in Empire’s system, including all dependents, with coverage effective January 1, 2008.

  • If you signed up late, and completed the online open enrollment form during January, you’ll appear in Empire’s system about a week later.

  • Members who haven’t already received their cards, or cards for their dependents, should receive them within 2 weeks. In the meantime, temporary cards are available on Empire’s website. To print a temporary insurance card visit www.empireblue.com, click on the orange "register" button, and follow the prompts. Where it asks for your Empire ID, enter your social security number. (If you don’t want to use your SSN online, you can call Empire for your member ID: 800-662-5193.) We're investigating browser compatibility issues with Empire. In the meantime, your best bet is to use Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

  • Empire’s system shows only the first 10 characters of first names. If your entire first name doesn’t fit on your card, don’t worry. It doesn’t affect your coverage in any way.

  • We’ve just made a dental discount from Aetna available. For members who don’t have Guardian dental insurance, the Aetna discount is comparable to the Careington discount on the old HIP plans. Learn more here.

  • Some members have questions about how they were billed recently. Here’s how it works.

    • On November 15, members were billed for January coverage. Since members had not yet selected their new plans for 2008, they were charged the old rate for the plan they were enrolled in at that time.

    • On December 15, members were billed for February coverage. The members who had completed the open enrollment form as of that date were also credited the charges for their previous plan for January, and charged the new rate for their new plan for January coverage.

    • Members who weren’t previously insured and started health insurance as of January 1 were charged for both January and February coverage plus the Application Fee ($40) and the Annual Access Fee ($50).