Posted on: Friday, June 21, 2002

Workers getting $23M in health plan refunds

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Some 62,000 state and county workers and retirees are getting refund checks totaling more than $23 million for health insurance premiums paid in the 1990s.

Hawaii Public Employees Health Fund administrator Bert Nishihara said yesterday that the checks started going in the mail last week to repay money that wasn't needed for health insurance premiums but was collected from workers enrolled in various health plans.

The first 20,000 checks were sent last week, another 20,000 were mailed this week and the remaining 22,000 will go out next week, he said.

The refunds follow the state Legislature's passage of a law last year allowing the state health fund to return any credit or reimbursement from insurance carriers to those who paid the premiums.

Nishihara said the amount of the checks range from $1 to about $1,300 and total $23.15 million, depending on one's level of coverage and amount of time in the plan.

Many public workers and all retirees receive their health coverage from the state-run Public Employees Health fund. The fund collects money from public workers, the state and counties and buys coverage for the workers and retirees.

Those due the refund were enrolled in the Hawai'i Medical Services Association medical plan July 1, 1991 through June 30, 1996 and from July 1, 1997 to June 30, 1999; in the HMSA drug plan from July 1, 1993 through June 30, 1995; in the HMO Hawai'i plan from July 1, 1996 through June 30, 1997; Hawai'i Dental Service Adult Dental plan from July 1, 1996 to June 30, 1999 and VSP Vision plan from July 1, 1994 to June 30, 1995.