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Healthcare Policy & Benefit Services Division Memoranda

2019-04: Termination of Retiree Health Fund Contributions

Date: August 30, 2019


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 DIVISION MEMORANDUM 2019-04
TO THE HEADS OF ALL STATE AGENCIES

August 30, 2019

ATTENTION:  Personnel and Payroll Officers
SUBJECT:  Termination of Retiree Health Fund Contributions

I.  INTRODUCTION

In the coming months, employees who first began contributing to the Retiree Health Fund in 2009 will reach the end of their required OPEB deductions.  The Division has received numerous inquiries from employees wanting to know when their contributions will end.  The purpose of this memorandum is to announce availability of a resource within CORE-CT that will allow employees to estimate when their Retiree Health Fund deductions will end.

II.  DISCUSSION

Depending upon date of hire, healthcare-eligible employees are required to contribute to the Retiree Health Fund for either 10 years (hired before July 1, 2017) or 15 years (hired on or after July 1, 2017).  Each employee’s contributions to the Retiree Health Fund are monitored in CORE-CT, and the system has been programmed to close the deduction when an employee has made the required 120 or 180 months of contributions.

Understandably, those who began contributing to the Retiree Health Fund in 2009 and 2010 are anticipating the end of these deductions and want to know when this will occur.

To help meet that need, CORE-CT has added an OPEB Start Date pagelet, located directly under the Payroll Section in CORE-CT self-service.  The pagelet shows the end date of the first pay period in which an employee made a Retiree Health Fund contribution. It includes information for all deduction codes (OPEB; OPE2, OPE15, OTRS, OTR2 and OTR15).

The applicable stop date will be 10 or 15 years from the date of the first paycheck in which the Retiree Health Fund deduction was taken.  For those paid bi-weekly, the corresponding paycheck date would be approximately two weeks after the date shown on the pagelet.  If there was any interruption in collection of Retiree Health Fund deductions (due to, for example, unpaid leave, separation from service, refund of contributions, or enrollment errors) the date for termination of contributions will be extended by the number of months missed.

Employees are encouraged to monitor their paychecks to confirm that their Retiree Health Fund deductions have stopped at the expected time.  Employees that do not use self-service in CORE-CT should ask agency payroll or Human Resources personnel for assistance.

III. CONCLUSION 

Agency Payroll and Human Resources personnel with questions about this memorandum should e-mail ebu.osc@ct.gov  or telephone 860-702-3543.

 

Very truly yours,

Thomas C. Woodruff, Ph.D.
Division Director