DCAA can help you pay for summer

DCAA can help you pay for summer camp

By SHERRY HALBROOK
If you have a Dependent Care Advantage Account (DCAA), don’t forget you can use it to pay for sending your child up to age 13 to summer day camp while you are at work.

And if you are not already enrolled in the DCAA for 2006, this may be your chance.

DCAA is a negotiated benefit for state PS&T employees that allows you to set aside up to $5,000 in pre-tax salary to pay for child, elder or disabled dependent care expenses. And the state will help you pay for the care.

Although the regular 2006 DCAA open enrollment period is over, there is an eligible change in status that allows you to enroll mid-year. Sending your child to day camp probably means you are changing your care provider for the summer or changing the rate you pay for care. Either of these reasons qualifies as a change in status that permits you to enroll now. You cannot use your DCAA to pay for overnight camps.

Open enrollment for 2007 will begin in mid-September.

Unlike other pre-tax spending programs, the state adds its own money to the money you set aside from your pay for DCAA. How much the state contributes depends on your annual salary, with lower-paid employees receiving the larger benefit.
If you earn:
• Less than $30,000, you get $700;
• $30,001 to $40,000, you get $600;
• $40,001 to $50,000, you get $500;
• $50,001 to $60,000, you get $400; and
• $60,001 to $70,000, you get $300; and
• More than $70,000, you get $200.

Call 1-800-358-7202 or visit www.flexspend.state.ny.us online for more details.

Make the most of your vision care benefits

By LORRAINE SIMPKINS
PEF’s PS&T members receive fully-paid vision care benefits under their contract, which offers quality eyewear services from participating providers at little or no cost to eligible employees and their dependents.

And if you go to a non-participating optometrist for your vision care, you can be reimbursed based on a fixed-payment schedule.

Benefits are available to you and each covered dependent once in any 24-month period, except for dependents 18 or younger, who are eligible once in any 12-month period. Even you and your older covered dependents could also be eligible for annual vision services if they are medically necessary.

To minimize your out-of-pocket costs for vision care:
• Use a participating provider. For a list of participating providers, call Davis Vision at 1-800-999-5431 or visit www.davisvision.com online. You pay the extra cost for non-plan lenses (such as no-line bifocals and progressives) and/or frames.

• Use all components of your vision benefit (exam, corrective eyewear, and occupational eyewear) at the same time, because partial use of the benefit is considered full use.

• Receive the occupational vision care services at the same time as your routine vision care services. These benefits, for the employee only, are available once in any 24-month period.

• Get eyeglasses rather than contact lenses, which have a $25 or $45 copay even from a participating provider.

• If your spouse is also a state employee with separate coverage under the state’s vision plan, each of you and your dependents can be covered under both plans.

For more tips visit www.pef.org and click on “Health Benefits.