N.Y. medical education assessment to rise

Employers with workers living in New York will pay more in 2009 to help fund a state pool used to pay for graduate medical education, among other things.

The pool is funded by a so-called covered-lives assessment on employers with employees in New York. The highest assessment will be imposed on employers with employees living in New York City. Their annual assessment will increase in 2009 to $543.20 for employees with families, up from $494.50, while the annual assessment for employees choosing single coverage will rise to $164.61 from $149.95.

The amount of the assessments is lower in other parts of the state. For example, the annual assessment for family coverage in 2009 will be $102.08—up from $87.28—per employee for employers with employees living in Western New York, which includes Allegany, Erie and Niagara counties, while the assessment per employee for those choosing single coverage will be $30.93, up from $26.54.

Those annual assessments are levied in addition to a special, six-month supplemental assessment that expires in April 2009. For example, employers with employees in the New York City region pay an additional supplemental assessment of $22.60 for each employee choosing single coverage and a supplemental assessment of $74.58 for each employee opting for family coverage.