Practical Matters: The FA's Prescription Copay Benefit

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program

Welcome back, new faculty, to a new semester! I hope you're all having a relatively smooth introduction to the new year, too, and that your holidays were merry and peaceful.

This is the time of year when many of us try to restore order to our lives after the chaos of the holidays. We do this also because it's the beginning of tax season -- W2s are coming in, 1098s, all of those various forms and pieces of paper that we need in order to figure out how much we've paid to the government over the past year and whether or not we still owe money or whether we'll be receiving money instead.

It's always more enjoyable to be the latter, of course, and to have more cash in hand. To that end, I want to make you aware of a way to recoup some of last year's expenses via a benefit the Faculty Association provides. And since this is the season of paper-and-form gathering, it makes sense to do this alongside or maybe even before you get to doing those taxes. 

The Prescription Copay Benefit allows you to receive up to $500 back for prescription copays you shelled out for medications prescribed during the previous year (to you, and to eligible dependents). That's money worth doing some extra work for -- and really, the work is not intense.

You'll find this at fascc.org under Benefit Fund forms.

First, go to your local pharmacy and ask for printouts of all of the prescriptions you and your eligible dependents received over the past year (usually for the emergency drugs, like penicillin). Also go to the Welldyne Rx web site for any maintenance drugs you may be receiving and print out a list of your prescriptions and copays there, too.

Then add everything up. Write the amount you spent on copays on the claim form (which can be found here on the FA's web site), make sure the rest of the necessary information is filled out, and then mail your form and documentation to the address at the top of the form, which I'll repost here just so it's clear -- the Fund Office is a different location than the FA Office:

Faculty Association Suffolk Community College Benefit Fund

253 West 35th

Street – 12th Floor

New York, NY 10001-1907

Like your taxes, this form is due in April. The good news is that the deadline for your claim is April 30, well after the tax deadline. So you have some time -- but I always think it's better to get that stuff out of the way before the semester gets into full swing, don't you? One less item on your to-do list to worry about.

NYSUT, AFT, AFL-CIO, and "On Campus"

by Sarah Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program

You may or may not have come to SCCC this year from an institution with a strong union presence (or, sadly, any union presence at all) -- so being a part of a union and what that means may be rather new to you.

Why grade that stack of papers when you could explore AFT?

 

The Faculty Association of Suffolk County Community College is dedicated to providing good working conditions and salaries for its community of professionals (full-time classroom faculty, librarians, counselors, specialists and professional assistants), as well fostering an environment that "maintain[s] the tradition of excellent public higher education in Suffolk County, New York," as FA President Kevin Peterman writes in his welcome letter on the FA web site.

The FA shares this commitment to excellence in higher education and optimal working conditions for its professionals by being a part of New York State United Teachers (or, NYSUT), a federation of more than 1,200 local unions in New York State. NYSUT is an affiliate of AFT, the American Federation of Teachers -- which is an affiliate of AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations), an "umbrella federation for U.S. unions."

Together, these organizations work to promote the best interests of its membership. The FA believes, as Kevin reminds us in his welcome letter, "the working conditions of our members help enhance the learning conditions of our students" -- so promoting the best interests of the membership also promotes the best interest of our students and, because we're a public institution, our community.

You'll notice (if you haven't already) that as a part of the FA you're going to receive a lot of literature via the U.S. Postal Service from AFT and NYSUT. While this can seem overwhelming once in a while, especially around election time, the pros of being "in the loop" far outweigh the cons.

For instance, you probably received an issue of the September/October issue of AFT's periodical "On Campus" at the beginning of the semester.  This magazine addresses a number of issues relevant to those working in higher education, and often gives you a larger sense of what’s happening in higher education (the good and the bad) across the nation. It’s worth perusing these issues – even if you have to wait until classes are over to find the time – to keep abreast of important trends that may affect our profession.

The magazine also features articles that offer advice and tips for improving your professional performance. To peruse any back issue of “On Campus,” visit http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/oc/issues.cfm.

 

Also, as members of AFT and NYSUT, you're eligible for benefits. To learn more about these benefits (from car rental, entertainment, and healthclub discounts to legal and financial services), visit www.aft.org and create an online account -- you'll need your AFT member number and your AFT local number.

 

You should have received an AFT membership card in the mail by this point. But if you've misplaced it (LIKE SOMEONE WHO SHOULD BE MUCH BETTER ABOUT SUCH THINGS BUT ISN'T, AND SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS) you should go to the AFT Members Only page and fill out the form. Explain that you need your number(s), and they'll send you a helpful email in response.

 

NYSUT also provides benefits to its members (you may have received some indication of this via mail already). To log on to the NYSUT web site and learn more, visit their login page and follow the directions.