DPLSA Information

Medical Care Expenses reimbursed under the Plan are intended to be eligible for exclusion from your gross income. Eligible retirees (and their surviving spouses and dependents) generally can “spend-down” their HRA allocations on eligible Medical/Dental/Prescription insurance premium expenses until their allocations are exhausted.

The CDSPU Board of Trustees (Board) oversees the Plan. The Trustees are officers appointed by your public safety unions.

The Trustees Plan Administrator is TIC International Corporation, 6525 Centurion Drive, Lansing, Michigan 48917-9275; Telephone: (517) 321-7502; Fax: (517) 321-7508.

The Trustees have delegated the administration of the reimbursement of claims to Automated Benefit Services (ABS). ABS has been providing these services – under COPS – since the inception of the HRA program.

The amount the City contributes to the CDPSU for HRA purposes is determined by the terms of each Union’s CBA with the City. The City’s CBA required contribution amounts are not the same for each Union.

How much does the City pay into my account balance each month?
The current monthly HRA stipend amount for each Union is as follows:

• DPOA $ 80.00
• DFFA * $ 175.00
• DPLSA $ 80.00
• DPCOA $ 65.00

*Please Note: If you’re a catastrophically duty-disabled DFFA retiree, you are
eligible to receive this HRA stipend. Or, you may elect to participate in the City’s
HAP HMO. This is an either/or option. You cannot receive both the HRA and the
HAP HMO benefit.

The monthly HRA stipend amount is based primarily on your Union CBA. As explained below, actuarial factors – and to a lesser extent, expenses – also influence this monthly stipend amount.

Each Union, through its membership, made its own decision on the wages
and benefits of its CBA, including the health care benefits for post-January 1, 2015 retirees. These individual, Union-made wage/benefit decisions largely determine the monthly HRA stipend amount.

The COPS Board of Trustees (COPS Board) set the monthly HRA stipend amounts. The COPS Board hired an actuary to help them prudently determine the monthly stipend HRA amounts.

Among other things, the COPS Board considered the amount of the City’s CBA-required contributions for each Union, actuarial considerations (e.g., age and population), and administrative expenses in arriving at these monthly HRA stipend amounts.

For now, the CDPSU Board will continue to provide the same monthly stipend amounts.

You’ll be paid any retroactive HRA stipend amounts that you’re owed.

(Depending on when you retire after January 1, 2015, you may not be owed any retroactive payments).

To be eligible for HRA benefits, you must have retired from the City after January 1, 2015 and not be Medicare eligible.

You are first eligible on the first day of the month after the eligibility requirements have been satisfied, provided that any required enrollment forms have been submitted to the Plan Administrator. Once enrolled, your participation will continue from month-to month until you cease participating.

You will cease to be eligible to participate in this Plan under different circumstances, such as voluntarily opting out or exhausting your account balance, as well as when you turn age 65 or otherwise become eligible for Medicare.

So long as you don’t die before retirement, your spouse may continue to be entitled to reimbursements for permitted Medical Care Expenses until he or she stops being eligible.

Dependents of the deceased Participant may continue participation until they no longer meet the definition of “Dependent” or the HRA account balance reaches zero.

Yes. However, you may continue to submit claims for reimbursement for three years after you cease participating, for expenses incurred while you were eligible. An expense is incurred at the time the medical care is furnished, and not when you are formally billed for the medical care.

If your HRA account balance does not reach zero within the three years,
your remaining balance will be forfeited.

Are there any other circumstances when my balance is forfeited?

Yes. Other circumstances can include:

• Death;
• Opt-out;
• Board of Trustee modification; or
• Return to City employment.

This HRA monthly stipend is not a guaranteed benefit. Nor is the current
amount of the stipend guaranteed.

The CDPSU’s duty to pay you a monthly HRA stipend, and the amount of that stipend, depends on a few things, including the City’s timely and proper payments to the CDPSU of the City’s CBA-required contributions.

To be even more specific and emphatic:

1. You have no vested rights in any HRA benefits or the amount of any HRA
   benefit under CDPSU; and
2. CDPSU has the discretionary right to change, reduce, or even eliminate
   this HRA benefit — at any time and for any reason, including if the City
   fails to timely pay its CBA-required contributions for HRA purposes.

Moreover, this HRA is a result of the Unions’ CBAs with the City: the CDPSU assumes that the Unions and the City will, when the time comes, negotiate new CBAs that will again fund this HRA. But, the CDPSU cannot guarantee that possibility. So, these HRAs are not guaranteed benefits.

The Plan will reimburse you for Medical Care Expenses up to the unused amount in your account. You cannot simply collect and spend your HRA monthly stipend on anything you want.

Instead, your HRA stipend reimburses you and your dependents for Medical Care Expenses which are specially defined under the Internal Revenue Code because of their favorable tax treatment.

Requests for premium reimbursement must be submitted to the ABS at least every six months and in all events within one year of the date that the claim was incurred.

If you seek reimbursement for insurance premiums that you paid with after-tax
dollars, you must verify this twice a year for the CDPSU. See the following website for information on this verification process: www.CDPSUTrust.com.

If you seek reimbursement for “eligible health care expenses” other than reimbursable insurance premiums (e.g., co-pays), the verification process is different. Again, see the website listed above for information on this verification process.

You can appeal from any denial and have 180 days after receiving such a denial; more details of this process are in your Summary Plan Description.

Effective January 1, 2020, all items that constitute “medical expenses” as defined under the Internal Revenue Code shall be reimbursable.

In general, reimbursable medical care expenses include, but are not limited to premiums, hospitalization, doctors and dentist bills and prescription drugs. This also includes the amounts you pay for deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance and COBRA continuation coverage.

Only post-tax dollar premiums are reimbursable through your HRA stipend.

If you’re currently purchasing health insurance on a public health care exchange and receiving federal tax credits, this HRA stipend may disqualify you from receiving these federal tax credits.

If you wish to preserve your eligibility for federal tax credits, you can optout
of participation in this HRA. Once you opt out, you can continue to purchase health insurance on a public health care exchange and still receive federal tax credits, provided you otherwise qualify for the tax credits. If you opt-out, you will not receive a HRA monthly stipend.

If you don’t opt-out, you’ll participate in this HRA program and you’ll likely lose your eligibility for federal tax credits on your exchange-purchased health insurance.

You may opt-out at any time by providing written notification of your opt-out decision to ABS as follows:

ABS
Attn: CDSPU Trust Retiree HRA – Opt Out
800 Tower Drive, Suite 300
Troy, MI 48098

You cannot opt-out verbally. Your opt-out selection must be in writing.

To apply for HRA benefits, you must do the following:

1. Provide ABS with proof of retirement from a DPOA, DPLSA,
   DPCOA OR DFFA bargaining unit (ABS will also secure verification of
   your retirement from a DPOA, DPLSA, DPCOA OR DFFA bargaining
   unit).
2. You must submit to ABS a Substantiation Form, which provides
   proof of current medical coverage and documentation of premium payments
   made by you for medical coverage.

You should submit these forms and documentation to ABS as follows:

Fax: (586) 693-4321

Email: FSAClaims@abs-tpa.com

Mail: ABS Substantiation Department
800 Tower Drive, Suite 300
Troy, MI 48098