§87A-23  Health benefits plan supplemental
to medicare.  The board shall establish a health benefits plan, which takes
into account benefits available to an employee-beneficiary and spouse under
medicare, subject to the following conditions:



(1)  There shall be no duplication of benefits payable
under medicare.  The plan under this section, which shall be secondary to
medicare, when combined with medicare and any other plan to which the health
benefits plan is subordinate under the National Association of Insurance
Commissioners' coordination of benefit rules, shall provide benefits that
approximate those provided to a similarly situated beneficiary not eligible for
medicare;



(2)  The State, through the department of budget and
finance, and the counties, through their respective departments of finance,
shall pay to the fund a contribution equal to an amount not less than the
medicare part B premium, for each of the following who are enrolled in the
medicare part B medical insurance plan:  (A) an employee-beneficiary who is a
retired employee, (B) an employee-beneficiary's spouse while the
employee-beneficiary is living, and (C) an employee-beneficiary's spouse, after
the death of the employee-beneficiary, if the spouse qualifies as an
employee-beneficiary.  For purposes of this section, a "retired
employee" means retired members of the employees' retirement system;
county pension system; or a police, firefighters, or bandsmen pension system of
the State or a county as set forth in chapter 88.  If the amount reimbursed by
the fund under this section is less than the actual cost of the medicare part B
medical insurance plan due to an increase in the medicare part B medical
insurance plan rate, the fund shall reimburse each employee-beneficiary and
employee-beneficiary's spouse for the cost increase within thirty days of the
rate change.  Each employee-beneficiary and employee-beneficiary's spouse who
becomes entitled to reimbursement from the fund for medicare part B premiums
after July 1, 2006, shall designate a financial institution account into which
the fund shall be authorized to deposit reimbursements.  This method of payment
may be waived by the fund if another method is determined to be more
appropriate;



(3)  The benefits available under this plan, when combined
with benefits available under medicare or any other coverage or plan to which
this plan is subordinate under the National Association of Insurance
Commissioners' coordination of benefit rules, shall approximate the benefits
that would be provided to a similarly situated employee-beneficiary not
eligible for medicare;



(4)  All employee-beneficiaries or
dependent-beneficiaries who are eligible to enroll in the medicare part B
medical insurance plan shall enroll in that plan as a condition of receiving contributions
and participating in benefits plans under this chapter.  This paragraph shall
apply to retired employees, their spouses, and the surviving spouses of
deceased retirees and employees killed in the performance of duty; and



(5)  The board shall determine which of the
employee-beneficiaries and dependent-beneficiaries, who are not enrolled in the
medicare part B medical insurance plan, may participate in the plans offered by
the fund. [L 2001, c 88, pt of §1; am L 2003, c 111, §1; am L 2006, c 39, §1]