N.Y. medical education assessment on employers to rise in 2012

ALBANY, N.Y.—A 1996 New York state law that established a pool to help fund graduate medical education through a special assessment on employers will cost employers more next year.

The exact amount of the special assessment—known as a covered-lives assessment—is set each year by the New York State Department of Health and is based on where a company’s employees reside.

For example, the 2012 assessment for an employee living in New York and opting for family coverage will be $641.89, up from $608.42 this year, while the assessment for an employee living in Rochester, N.Y., and opting for family coverage will be $317.13, up from $308.40.

The lowest assessment will be paid by employers with employees living in the Utica/Watertown area. The 2012 assessment for an employee choosing family coverage will be $27.37, up from $25.35, while the assessment for individual coverage will be $8.29, up from $7.68 in 2011.

Indigent care surcharge

Separately, a surcharge that is imposed on bills incurred in New York state hospitals will be 9.63% next year, the same as this year.

The surcharge is used to help fund indigent care.