Benefits for LHCSA Caregivers

Feeling sick and need to speak with a health provider? Just tap on the Speak To a Health Provider button on the home screen of the FreedomCare Plus App. If you don’t have the app, use this link: www.freedomcareny.com/telehealth1. This service is available to you and your patient at no cost, Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

ELAP is a healthcare solution provider that comes with your health insurance benefit. ELAP will audit bills that you receive from hospitals, outpatient surgery centers, and skilled nursing facilities to make sure that you are not being charged for excessive markups that are often seen on facility bills. So, when you receive hospital bills that don’t look quite right (i.e., it looks like they were overcharged for services), send your bills to ELAP, and ELAP will ensure that you are only being billed for services performed and nothing more. For more information, click here.

You get the vision plan no matter how many hours you work! You get one eye exam per year and up to $100 back each year, depending on what plan you have, to cover the cost of lenses, frames, or contacts.

How do I schedule an eye exam?

For eye exams, you must see an eye doctor who is in the MagnaCare network. Please call Total Plan Concepts at (800)-507-1433 to get a list of eye doctors in your area who are in the MagnaCare network. You will only need to pay a $10 copay for your eye exam.

How do I get reimbursed for lenses, frames, and contacts?

You may get your lenses, frames, and contacts, from any store or vendor you wish! You will just need to pay in full first and then you can submit for reimbursement. To submit for reimbursement, email [email protected] or fax (347)-230-5463 the following info:

• Your full name
• Member ID (on your insurance card)
• Your receipt, which needs to show the date of purchase, the services and/or items purchased, and the cost

Once received and processed, you will receive a reimbursement check from Total Plan Concepts.

You can get up to 56 paid sick hours per year. Your sick hours start accruing right after you start working. You get 1 sick hour for every 30 hours you work, up to 56 hours per year. If you are sick and cannot make it to work, you may take 1 paid sick hour for every hour that you are scheduled to work that day as long as you have accrued enough sick hours.

You may begin using paid sick time 120 days after your first workday. To take your sick time, you must call your Care Coordinator.

You cannot take more than 56 paid sick hours per year. If you don’t use your paid sick hours, you can roll over up to 56 hours of sick time to the next year for 1 year. If you need to take more than 56 sick hours in a year, you can sign up for Paid Family Leave or Family and Medical Leave, depending on your situation.

Holiday pay is time and one half per hour worked for hours you work on these holidays!

• New Year’s Day
• Memorial Day
• 4th of July
• Labor Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day

To receive holiday pay, you must be scheduled to work on the holiday, and you must work on the holiday.

If you work on the holiday, but you are not scheduled to work that day, you will not receive holiday pay for that day.

If you work more hours on the holiday than you are scheduled for, you will only be paid for the hours that you are scheduled to work.

If you were scheduled to work on the holiday and you call out sick that day, you may use available paid sick time, but you will not receive holiday pay for that day.

Overtime refers to any hours that you work over 40 hours in a week. You get paid time and one half per hour when you work over 40 hours in a week.

Vacation time is based on an accrual process, so depending on the number of hours you work, you can get up to 40 paid vacation hours per year. Your vacation hours start accruing right after you start working, but you may not start using your paid vacation hours until after 120 days of employment.

If you don’t use your paid vacation hours, you can roll over up to 40 vacation hours to the next year for 1 year, but you cannot use more than 80 vacation hours in 1 year. Vacation hours can only be used for hours that you are scheduled to work.

You are responsible for managing your vacation hours. You must request approval to use vacation time from your Coordinator as early as possible but no less than 1 month in advance.

In accordance with New York State Paid Family Leave, FreedomCare provides job-protected paid leave to bond with a new child, care for a loved one with a serious health condition, or help relieve family pressures when someone is called to active military service.

If you have a regular schedule of 20 or more hours per week, you may apply to take Paid Family Leave after 26 weeks of employment.

If you have a regular schedule of less than 20 hours per week, you may apply after 175 days worked.

If you have a foreseeable situation, you must notify FreedomCare at least 30 days prior to when you need to go on leave. If the event is not foreseeable, you must notify FreedomCare right away.

To apply for Paid Family Leave, contact your FreedomCare Coordinator.

FreedomCare offers a 401(k) plan, also known as a retirement plan, that you can contribute to 90 days after your start date.

To sign up and enroll:

To sign up for the 401(k) plan, first create an account with Principal Financial by following these steps: https://tinyurl.com/3r4yeu68

Then learn how to enroll by watching this video or contacting the Orenda Sponsor Service Team at (212) 564-2464 or [email protected].

Before registering, please note:
• To withdraw funds from your retirement account, you must pay a mandatory 20% withholding tax. If you are under age 59½, an additional 10% early distribution penalty applies.
• The retirement plan does not allow loans.

If you are on a medical plan with FreedomCare (plans A through F and the MEC plan), you will receive a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) plan. An HRA provides monthly funds that you can use to pay for certain medical expenses.

How does the HRA work?

A card, similar to a debit card, will be mailed to you when you become eligible for the plan. You’ll receive a mailer like this one with your card.
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You will receive $100 on a card each month that you are on a medical plan with FreedomCare. The funds will be deposited directly onto the card, and you can swipe the card just like a debit card when paying for medical expenses.

What can I use my HRA card for?

You can use your HRA card for dental, vision, medical, pharmacy, and over-the-counter medicine expenses including:

• Any leftover expenses for glasses or contacts that you were not reimbursed for
• Any leftover dental expenses that you were not reimbursed for
• Medical and prescription co-pays
• Medical bills you paid out of pocket for
• And more

You can find a full list of qualifying medical expenses here.
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Note that not all pharmacies accept the HRA card. It’s best to use national chain pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens when using the HRA card.

How do I file a reimbursement claim?

If you are not able to use your card when you receive the service, you can submit a reimbursement claim by filling out this form and emailing it, along with the bill or explanation of benefits, to Flex Facts at [email protected].
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You have from January 1st to March 31st to submit claims from the prior calendar year.

Note: Even if you use your card to make purchases, hold onto your receipts. You may be asked to submit receipts for certain claims.

Do my HRA funds expire?

No. HRA funds never expire – but remember that eligible expenses must be submitted for reimbursement by March 31st of the following year in which the expense was incurred. 

For example, a prescription medication cost incurred in December 2023 would need to be submitted by March 31, 2024 to be eligible for reimbursement.

For more information:

View the Summary Plan Description here.
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View the Flex Facts Employee Guide here.
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For questions, call the Flex Facts at 732-640-5951.

Sign up for our pre-tax transit benefit! You can choose to set aside pre-tax dollars from your paycheck for mass transit (subway, train, bus, or ferry) and parking expenses associated with your daily commute to and from your patient’s home. The maximum amount you may set aside per month is $265.

To sign up, complete the Enrollment Form and fax it to 347-338-1404 or email it to [email protected].

Please note, this is not a reimbursement.

You may get up to $200 back each month for childcare if you work 40 hours or more in a month and pay for childcare in that same month, as long as your children are under age 13.

To submit for reimbursement, complete the Claim Form. You will need to provide the name, email address, and Tax ID of the childcare provider. The Tax ID is the same as the child care provider’s social security number. Once you fill out the form and sign it, the form will be automatically emailed to the childcare provider to sign. Then it will be emailed to Flex Facts to process.

You have 90 days from the end of each month to submit for reimbursement, but you must wait until the 15th of each month to submit for the previous month’s expenses. For example, for expenses you had in July, you can submit for reimbursement between August 15th and October 29th.

‍No need to submit anything to FreedomCare; all reimbursements will go through Flex Facts. For more info, view the Dependent Care Guide here. For questions, please call Flex Facts at 8779432287.

We’ve partnered with Kredit, a leading provider of credit monitoring and repair services, to offer this free benefit designed to help increase your credit score and protect your identity. This free benefit includes a suite of features that include:

Credit Monitoring

• Standard Alerts: Notifies you when we detect that your information was included in events such as a credit inquiry, new account, bankruptcy, public record, fraud alert or when there has been a change to the information on your credit report such as address or employment information
• Premium Alerts: Gives you a greater level of detail such as informing you when we detect that an authorized user is added to one of your accounts, a change to your credit score is detected, or when you reach your credit limit for an account
• Dark Web Monitoring: Searches for and notifies you of when your personal information is detected on the Dark Web, a hidden portion of the internet inaccessible using typical internet browsers

Credit Repair

• Identity Theft Insurance: Reimburses you for some of the expenses, such as legal defense or lost wages, incurred when restoring your identity and repairing your credit in the event of identity theft
• Identity Restoration: A dedicated US-based Identity Restoration Agent will guide you through the process of restoring your identity should you become the victim of identity theft

Register at Kredit to enroll in coverage today!

If you leave FreedomCare, you will no longer be able to receive this benefit for free.

Join our FreedomCare Caregivers Support Group on Facebook! The group is a community forum for you to talk openly about your caregiving experience and receive support and encouragement from other caregivers. It’s a place to share your experiences, challenges, and guidance with others who will understand.

To join, click here and select +Join Group. We will approve your request shortly!

Please note, only actively working FreedomCare caregivers can join this group, and you must have a Facebook account to join. Be sure to answer all the membership questions and include your legal name if it’s different from your Facebook name. Otherwise, we cannot accept your membership request.

Please be respectful with your posts. We can’t wait for you to join us.

To help you provide the best care for your patient, FreedomCare offers training courses on health conditions your patient may have. The courses are available on the FreedomCare Plus App and include:

1. Using the FreedomCare Plus App (for iPhone and Android)
2. Metabolic Diseases (Diabetes)
3. Chronic Pain
4. Cardiovascular Diseases (Heart Disease)
5. UTI – Urinary Tract Infection
6. COPD
7. Alzheimer’s/Dementia
8. Successful ADLs – A Guide to a Safe Living Environment
9. Sexual Harassment – Basic Training
10. PPE: Personal Protective Equipment
11. COVID-19 Training
12. CPR
13. First Aid

Click here to access the FreedomCare Employee Handbook for caregivers.