§ 92-a. Medical, surgical and hospital services or insurance for
officers, employees and retired officers and employees of public
corporations and their families. 1. As used in this section, the term
"public corporation" shall mean a municipal corporation, a district
corporation, a school district, a consolidated health district and a
county or town special district or a joint special district, governed by
a separate board of commissioners. Officers, employees and retired
officers and employees of a county or town special district which is not
governed by a separate board of commissioners shall be deemed to be
county or town officers and employees, or retired officers and
employees, respectively.

1-a. As used in this section the term "retired officer" shall include
any former school board member with twenty years or more service in such
position. The total cost of participation by such former school board
members and their families shall be borne by such former members.

2. A public corporation may contract with a non-profit membership
corporation, organized under article forty-three of the insurance law
and approved by the superintendent of financial services and the state
board of social welfare, or with any insurance company authorized to do
business in this state for the purpose of furnishing medical and
surgical services and hospital service as defined in such article
forty-three, or medical and surgical and hospital insurance to persons
who contract with such non-profit membership corporation or insurance
company, or who subscribe to a plan or plans, as hereinafter provided.
Any such contract entered into by a public corporation shall permit any
officer or employee or group of officers or employees of an agency or
department of the public corporation voluntarily to subscribe to a plan
or plans providing for medical and surgical and hospital insurance for,
or medical and surgical services and hospital service to, such officers
or employees and their families. Any such contract entered into by a
public corporation may, if authorized by the governing board or body and
subject to such conditions, limitations and eligibility requirements as
may be fixed by such board or body, permit any retired officers and
employees or group of retired officers and employees of an agency or
department of the public corporation voluntarily to subscribe to such a
plan or plans to provide such insurance for or service to themselves and
their families. The comptroller or other disbursing officer of the
public corporation, or of any fund out of which officers or employees of
such public corporation are paid, is authorized to deduct from the wages
or salary of such contracting or subscribing officer or employee, with
his prior consent, in writing, the sums required to be paid by such
officer or employee to such non-profit membership corporation or
insurance company. Such public corporation, if such contract or plan
provides that the employer shall contribute a share of the cost of such
medical and surgical services and hospital service, or medical and
surgical and hospital insurance, for its officers and employees or
retired officers and employees, is authorized to appropriate a sum
required to be paid under such contract by the public corporation as
employer. The sum to be paid by it under such contract, in the
discretion of such public corporation, may be any percentage of the
total cost including the whole thereof. Where the compensation of any
officer or employee whose position is covered by medical and surgical
services and hospital service or medical and surgical and hospital
insurance pursuant to this section is paid from a special or
administrative fund provided for by law, the contributions required to
be paid by the public corporation for such coverage shall be paid from
such special or administrative fund. The public corporation shall be
authorized to pay directly to such non-profit membership corporation or
to such insurance company, the total of such appropriation and of such
officer and employee deductions.

3. The authority conferred upon public corporations by this section
shall be in addition to and in no way a limitation upon the authority
conferred upon such public corporations to provide the same or similar
benefits for their officers and employees pursuant to article eleven of
the civil service law.

4. The provisions of this section shall apply to school board members,
provided however, that the total cost of participation by such school
board members and their families shall be borne by such members.

5. Any contract or contracts made pursuant to this section by a city
with a population of one million or more inhabitants and any plan or
plans effectuated by any such contract or contracts shall be
administered by the department of personnel or the office of municipal
labor relations of such city, or if there be no such department or
office therein, by a department, agency, or officer thereof designated
by the mayor of such city.

6. (a) Notwithstanding any general, special or local law to the
contrary, the governing board of a public corporation that, in lieu of
contracting pursuant to subdivision two of this section, self-funds
medical, surgical or hospital benefits, may enter into agreements with
duly qualified contract administrators or other service providers to
receive, investigate, make recommendations on, audit, approve or make
payment of claims for such benefits. Such agreements shall be entered
into pursuant to competitive bidding, or written request for proposals
in accordance with the procurement policies and procedures of the public
corporation adopted pursuant to section one hundred four-b of this
chapter.

(b) In order to authorize the payment of claims for benefits audited
and approved by a contract administrator or other service provider, an
agreement entered into pursuant to this subdivision may provide that
after claims have been audited by the contract administrator or other
service provider, the contract administrator or other service provider
shall periodically inform the public corporation of the total amount
payable in satisfaction of the audited and approved claims, together
with such other supporting information as the public corporation may
require, and the public corporation may transfer moneys in that amount
to the contract administrator or other service provider for disbursement
to the claimants entitled thereto. Any such agreement shall provide that
if a check issued by the contract administrator or other service
provider in satisfaction of a claim remains unpaid after one hundred
eighty days, the moneys payable in satisfaction of that claim shall be
returned to the public corporation.

(c) Any agreement entered into pursuant to this subdivision shall
contain, at a minimum, the following:

(i) a clear statement of the charges, fees or other compensation for
the services provided under the agreement;

(ii) a statement that payment for the services provided under the
agreement shall be made only after the services are rendered;

(iii) a provision stating that the contract administrator or other
service provider to which functions are delegated shall be liable to the
public corporation for all loss or damage that may result from any
failure by the contract administrator or other service provider to
discharge their duties, or from any improper or incorrect discharge of
those duties, and a provision that expressly reserves to the public
corporation all legal rights of set-off. The contract administrator or
service provider shall save the public corporation free and harmless
from any and all loss occasioned by or incurred in the performance of
services under an agreement pursuant to this subdivision;

(iv) a provision requiring the contract administrator or other service
provider to furnish a surety bond, irrevocable letter of credit or
equivalent security, in a form and amount acceptable to the governing
board of the public corporation, to secure the contract administrator's
or other service provider's performance under the agreement;

(v) a provision requiring the contract administrator or service
provider to establish, maintain and retain for a specified period
complete and accurate books, records, documents, accounts and other
evidence pertinent to performance under the agreement, and to submit
quarterly and annual reports, in a form acceptable to the governing
board of the public corporation, detailing the payment of claims and
other activities of the contract administrator or other service provider
during the relevant period. The auditing body or official of the public
corporation shall have access to and may examine such books, records,
documents, accounts and other evidence pertinent to performance under
the agreement upon reasonable notice to the contract administrator or
service provider;

(vi) a provision requiring an annual audit, and opinions thereon, by
an independent certified public accountant, of the accounting procedures
and internal control procedures of the contract administrator or other
service provider;

(vii) a provision by which the contract administrator or other service
provider agrees to maintain the confidentiality of medical records in
its possession and that such confidentiality may only be waived upon the
written consent of the covered person; and

(viii) a provision by which the contract administrator or other
service provider acknowledges that those records maintained on behalf of
the public corporation are subject to the provisions of article six of
the public officers law.

(d) A contract entered into pursuant to this section shall be for a
term not to exceed five years, except that it shall be subject to
cancellation by the municipal corporation at any time upon thirty days'
notice.

7. The provisions of this section shall permit a public corporation to
provide coverage for volunteer firefighters, as defined in section three
of the volunteer firefighters' benefit law, and volunteer ambulance
workers, as defined in subdivision one of section three of the volunteer
ambulance workers' benefit law, provided however, that the total cost of
participation by such volunteers and their families shall be borne by
such volunteers.