SECTION 590:10-19-3. Medicare Gap Benefit option

(a)   An alternate retirement benefit option is available to members of the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System provided an election form is properly completed and filed with the System after the Option Effective Date and prior to the member's effective retirement date. This alternate benefit option shall be called the Medicare Gap Benefit option. The Medicare Gap Benefit option is intended to permit certain members of the System to elect to receive an increased retirement benefit amount to help cover the cost of the health insurance premiums prior to the time that the member becomes Medicare-eligible, however, the Medicare Gap Benefit may not equal or cover the entire cost of the member's actual health insurance premiums.

(b)   As a result of the passage of Section 2 of Enrolled Senate Bill 1112 from the 1^st Session of the 51^st Oklahoma Legislature (2007), members electing the Medicare Gap Benefit Option with a retirement effective date on or after July 1, 2007, shall have the Medicare Gap Benefit determined in accordance with these rules.

(c)   Despite any provision to the contrary, all members who made the Medicare Gap Benefit Election with a retirement effective date from May 1, 2006, the Option Effective Date, through June 30, 2007, Medicare Gap Benefit means an adjusted retirement benefit which is greater than the member's Regular Retirement Benefit beginning with the first retirement benefit payment through December of the year the member becomes Medicare-eligible. Beginning in January of the year following such year that the member becomes Medicare-eligible, the retirement benefit will be actuarially reduced making the member's benefit less than the Regular Retirement Benefit for the remaining lifetime of the member.

(d)   Any member who has previously filed an application for vested benefits or any other non-active vested member who is considered to have met the sixty (60) day notice requirement for filing his or her retirement application may be permitted to file the election form provided by this section after the member's effective retirement date. However, this filing shall only be permitted if the System determines the member was unable to timely make such election prior to the effective retirement date. In no event shall the filing of this election form be permitted less than fifteen (15) days prior to the first benefit payment to the member. Any election form received and approved by the System within this fifteen-day period shall result in the retirement date of the member being moved to the next month.

[Source: Added at 22 Ok Reg 1354, eff 5-26-05; Amended at 25 Ok Reg 46, eff 8-16-07 (emergency); Amended at 25 Ok Reg 1001, eff 5-11-08; Amended at 26 Ok Reg 952, eff 4-25-09]