Contact ETF SICK LEAVE CREDIT CONVERSION …

1 Contact ETF SICK LEAVE CREDIT . CONVERSION PROGRAM. Find ETF-administered benefits information, forms, brochures, benefit calculators, educational offerings and other online resources. Stay connected with: ET-4132 (3/15/2018) Scan to read online. ETF E-Mail Updates @wi_etf 1-877-533-5020 or 608-266-3285 (local Madison). 7:00 to 5:00 (CST), Monday-Friday Benefit specialists are available to answer questions. Wisconsin Relay: 711. PO Box 7931. Madison, WI 53707-7931. Write ETF or return forms. Table of Contents Sick LEAVE CREDIT CONVERSION Program General 2. Calculating Accumulated Sick LEAVE CONVERSION Credits (ASLCC) .. 3. Calculating Supplemental Health Insurance CONVERSION Credits (SHICC).. 4. Eligibility to Use Sick LEAVE Credits to Pay Health Insurance 6. Escrowing Sick LEAVE 8. Re-enrolling in Health 9. Rehired 10. State Employees Married to Another State 12. Spouse and/or Dependent Eligibility After Your 13. Annual 15 Related 15.

2 Appendix A: Comparable Coverage Comparison 16. The Department of Employee Trust Funds does not discriminate on the basis of disability in the provision of programs, services or employment. If you are speech, hearing or visually impaired and need assistance, call toll free at 1-877-533-5020 or 608-266-3285 (local Madison). We will try to find another way to get the information to you in a usable form. ETF has made every effort to ensure that this brochure is current and accurate. However, changes in the law or processes since the last revision to this brochure may mean that some details are not current. The most current version of this document can be found at Please Contact ETF if you have any questions about a particular topic in this brochure. Cover photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. 1. General Information Sick LEAVE is an important fringe benefit available Insurance Program continues and health insurance to State of Wisconsin employees.

3 Most employees premiums are automatically deducted from sick earn and, depending on usage, will accumulate LEAVE credits until those credits are exhausted. In this hours of unused sick LEAVE while they are employed situation, you do not need to take any action. Once with the state. If eligible, upon retirement (regular or the sick LEAVE credits are exhausted, premiums are disability), layoff or death, you can use your unused automatically deducted from your monthly Wisconsin sick LEAVE credits to pay post-termination state group Retirement System annuity. health insurance premiums for you, your spouse and/or dependents. If the amount of your monthly annuity is greater than your health insurance premium, the premiums However, once your sick LEAVE credits are must be deducted from your annuity once your sick exhausted, you are responsible for the full amount LEAVE credits are exhausted. If your WRS annuity is of the premiums. Consequently, the value of your too small to cover your premiums, you will be billed unused sick LEAVE to pay your health insurance by your health insurance carrier and must pay the premiums after leaving state service provides a premiums directly to your health insurance carrier.

4 Strong financial incentive for you to use your sick LEAVE as sparingly as possible. If you do not wish to continue your coverage after your sick LEAVE credits have been exhausted, you There are two sick LEAVE CREDIT programs for State of may cancel your health insurance coverage by Wisconsin employees: notifying ETF in writing. Your health insurance The Accumulated Sick LEAVE CONVERSION coverage will end on the date you indicate on your CREDIT (ASLCC) Program, which began in the request, or the first of the month after ETF receives early 1970s and your written request to cancel, whichever is later. The Supplemental Health Insurance CONVERSION CREDIT (SHICC) Program, which While the most common situation is a state became available in 1995. employee retiring, beginning a retirement benefit immediately and continuing the health insurance If you are eligible, your employer reports your coverage for life, not every state employee ASLCC and SHICC sick LEAVE credits to the terminates under these circumstances.

5 Department of Employee Trust Funds. ETF deducts your health insurance premiums from your sick LEAVE This brochure provides detailed information about CREDIT balance and pays the premiums to your health how your sick LEAVE CREDIT balance is calculated, insurance plan. when you are eligible to use your sick LEAVE credits to pay post-termination State of Wisconsin Group Your unused sick LEAVE credits cannot be cashed Health Insurance Program premiums, as well as out when you LEAVE state employment, nor can options and requirements if you wish to delay using they be used to pay premiums for Medicare or for your accumulated sick LEAVE credits. It also explains any health insurance plans other than the State of the circumstances under which your surviving Wisconsin Group Health Insurance Program. spouse and/or dependents can use any remaining unused sick LEAVE credits to pay health insurance The most common situation occurs when a state premiums after your death.

6 Employee who is insured under the state's group health insurance begins receiving a retirement (or disability retirement) benefit immediately after retiring from the job. The State of Wisconsin Group Health 2. Calculating Accumulated Sick LEAVE CONVERSION Credits When you terminate eligible state employment, your Note: payroll office calculates your ASLCC credits based If a UWHC employee transfers to another on your unused sick LEAVE hours and your hourly rate state agency, any accumulated sick LEAVE of pay and certifies this information to ETF. Please from UWHC does not transfer to the new direct any questions regarding this calculation agency. However, if an employee transfers to your payroll representative. from another state agency to UWHC, UWHC. will hold the sick LEAVE earned from the To calculate your ASLCC balance, your hours of former state agency and include it in any unused sick LEAVE are multiplied by your highest1 ASLCC calculation at termination.

7 Except for base hourly rate of pay2 with the state. Once the this distinction, UWHC follows all standard final amount has been calculated (including any sick LEAVE practices, policies, rules and corrections reported by your employer, retroactive calculations used at other state agencies. adjustments due to contract settlements, etc.), your ASLCC balance does not accrue any interest. Your Former employees of Milwaukee County ASLCC balance cannot be divided by a Qualified Enrollment Services (MilES) and Milwaukee Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). The only County Child Care Provider Services (Meca). changes to your ASLCC balance occur when health whose county positions were converted into insurance premiums are deducted. state positions are not eligible to convert sick LEAVE credits earned while employees of If you are simultaneously employed with two or more Milwaukee County toward payment of post- separate state employers and have unused sick termination health insurance premiums.

8 LEAVE from each position, each of your employers must report your hours of unused sick LEAVE to ETF. The hours from all positions are converted based on your single highest rate of 1. Prior to July 26, 2003, ASLCC account balances were calculated based on the basic hourly rate of pay at termination, rather than the highest rate of pay. If you terminated state employment prior to July 26, 2003, your ASLCC must be calculated based on the base rate of pay at termination. 2. Exception: Certain supplemental pay for teachers, teacher supervisors and education directors is added to the base rate of pay used to calculate the ASLCC balance. Note that the inclusion of this supplemental pay as part of the highest base pay rate does NOT apply if you terminate employment with 20 years of WRS creditable service and are not eligible for an immediate annuity. Contact your employer's payroll representative with any questions about this provision. 3.

9 Calculating Supplemental Health Insurance CONVERSION Credits If you have at least 15 full years of adjusted 1. Non-Protective Employment Categories continuous service3 with the state when you terminate For your first 24 full years of adjusted continuous state employment, you may also be eligible for service, you can receive matching hours of SHICC. SHICC benefits are additional hours of sick sick LEAVE up to a maximum of 52 hours per LEAVE that increase your sick LEAVE account balance. year, multiplied by your full years of adjusted Like your ASLCC balance, your SHICC balance does continuous service. not accrue interest, has no cash value and cannot For your full years of continuous service over 24. be divided by a QDRO. Premiums must first be years, you can receive matching hours of sick deducted from your ASLCC balance, since SHICC. LEAVE up to a maximum of 104 hours per year, credits can only be used after your ASLCC balance multiplied by your full years of continuous service is exhausted.

10 Over 24 years. SHICC benefits are authorized and defined in the state compensation plan for most employees and in Example: A state employee has 28 full years of the collective bargaining agreement for represented continuous service with the state and retires with public safety employees. To date, the SHICC benefits 2,150 hours of unused sick LEAVE (ASLCC). have been the same for all employees. The only In addition to the 2,150 ASLCC hours, this difference in SHICC benefits for different employee person would also be eligible for 1,664 hours groups is that protective retirement category of SHICC. If the highest base rate of pay with employees are eligible to receive more hours than the state was $ per hour, he or she would non-protective employees. have sick LEAVE credits of $85, available Your employer's payroll representative is responsible to pay post-retirement state group health for determining whether you are eligible for SHICC insurance premiums.