Empire coverage began on January 1, 2008
Medical Emergencies & Doctors’ Appointments
Members who went to the doctor without a temporary card or Empire ID number
Understanding your bill

Empire coverage began on January 1, 2008. All members who selected an Empire plan during open enrollment are covered effective January 1, even if they do not yet have their cards or show up in Empire’s system.

• All members who completed the open enrollment form by or before December 28 are in Empire’s system and Caremark’s system (for prescription coverage). Members should appear in Davis Vision’s system (for optical coverage) by the end of this week.

• 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. We're investigating browser compatibility issues with Empire. In the meantime, your best bet is to use Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

• All members who completed open enrollment December 28 or later do not yet appear in Empire’s system. We are working with Empire to enter those members’ information.
  
  

Medical Emergencies & Doctors’ Appointments. If you or your dependents are not yet in Empire’s system and you have a medical emergency or doctor's appointments in the next few days, please call us at 718-222-1099 or 866-420-5807, or email us at membership@freelancersunion.org, and we will expedite you into the system. You should appear in Empire’s system within 24 hours.

Members who went to the doctor without a temporary card or Empire ID number. Your visit will be covered. Once you can print out your temporary card, give a copy of it to your doctor, and his/her office will be able to bill Empire and charge you the appropriate copay.

Understanding your bill. 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 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).