Section 5-513 - Group insurance contracts(a) Any school district may make contracts of insurance with any insurance company, or nonprofit hospitalization corporation, or nonprofit medical service corporation, authorized to transact business within the Commonwealth, insuring its employes, their spouses and dependents and retired employes, or any class or classes thereof, under a policy or policies of group insurance covering life, health, hospitalization, medical service, or accident insurance, and may contract with any such company granting annuities or pensions, for the pensioning of such employes, and may contract with any such company insuring members of the school board under policies of travel and accident insurance while on the official business of the board, including travel to and returning from meetings of the board or committees thereof, and for such purposes may agree to pay part or all of the premiums or charges for carrying such contracts, and may appropriate out of its treasury any money necessary to pay such premiums or charges or portions thereof. No contract or contracts of insurance authorized by this section shall be purchased from or through any person employed by the school district in a teaching or administrative capacity.(b) The board of school directors is hereby authorized to deduct from the employe's pay, salary, or compensation, such part of the premium as is payable by the employe and as may be so authorized by the employe in writing.(b.1)(1) School districts, intermediate units and area career and technical schools shall give employes and their dependents, upon the employe's retirement, the option of continuing coverage in the group health plan to which they belonged as employes.(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of Title XXII of the Public Health Service Act (58 Stat. 682, 42 U.S.C. § 300bb-1 et seq.) and amendments thereto, annuitants of the Public School Employees' Retirement System may continue to purchase that coverage after retirement, as defined in paragraph (4), until sixty-five years of age or until they are covered by another plan. An annuitant who is eligible to be covered as an employe or dependent by any other employer-provided health plan shall not be eligible for coverage in the school unit's health plan: Provided, however, That such annuitant shall be eligible for reinstatement in the school unit's health plan whenever such alternate coverage ceases.(3) Purchase of the coverage provided for in this subsection shall equal the cost of the program for active employes and dependents plus an additional two per centum.(4) For purposes of this section, an annuitant shall mean a member of the Public School Employees' Retirement System who has taken superannuation retirement, has retired with thirty (30) or more years of credited service or has taken disability retirement.(5) Qualifying annuitants who retired from the school entity prior to July 1, 1989, or subsequent to that date shall be eligible for continuing coverage under the school unit's group health plan. No qualifying annuitant, however, may purchase such coverage until July 1, 1989. Annuitants shall be required to comply with the following conditions in order to purchase continuing coverage as provided in this section:(i) Annuitants who retired prior to July 1, 1989, shall, within sixty (60) days of the effective date of this act, be notified by the Public School Employees' Retirement System of their entitlement to purchase continuing medical coverage as provided herein. Within forty-five (45) days from the date of such notice, annuitants who elect to purchase continuing coverage shall provide written notification to the school unit from which they retired of their decision to enroll in its health plan.(ii) Annuitants who retire after July 1, 1989, shall, within sixty (60) days of their retirement, be notified by the school unit to which they belonged at the time of retirement of their entitlement to purchase continuing medical coverage as provided herein. Within forty-five (45) days from the date of such notice, annuitants who elect to purchase continuing coverage shall provide written notification to the school unit of their decision to enroll in the health plan to which they belonged at the time of retirement.(iii) The school unit shall be responsible for providing annuitants with written notification of deadlines for payment of premiums. Failure to pay prescribed premiums and fees, as provided in this section, in not less than sixty (60) days from the date of notice, shall automatically terminate eligibility of an annuitant to participate in the health care plan: Provided, however, That nothing in this subsection shall prohibit the reinstatement of persons into the health plan in accordance with procedures established by the school unit, consistent with policies of the provider of the health plan.(6) School districts, intermediate units and area career and technical schools shall report annually to the Department of Education the increased costs resulting exclusively from the inclusion of qualified annuitants and their dependents in the entity's group health plan, for the purpose of evaluating the feasibility of future Commonwealth funding.(c) All contracts procured hereunder shall conform and be subject to all the provisions of any existing or future laws concerning group insurance and group annuity contracts.(d) Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to repeal any act of Assembly now providing for the granting of pensions or retirement remuneration to any of the employes of any school district.Amended by P.L. TBD 2019 No. 76, § 7, eff. 12/30/2019.1949, March 10, P.L. 30, art. V, § 513. Amended 1949, May 9, P.L. 939, § 2; 1961, June 8, P.L. 280, § 1; 1968, July 16, P.L. 358, No. 178, § 1; 1970, July 24, P.L. 611, No. 204, § 1; 1988, Oct. 20, P.L. 827, No. 110, § 1, effective 7/1/1989; 1989, July 8, P.L. 253, No. 43, § 2, imd. effective.