STATEWIDE — THE NEW YORK STATE COURT OF APPEALS in a Wednesday, June 18, ruling reversed a lower court decision that benefitted a NYC retirees group fighting to keep its traditional Medicare plan. That group, the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, along with the FDNY EMS Retirees Association, won previous rulings to prevent Mayor Eric Adams from forcing them to switch to a privately-administered Medicare Advantage plan through Aetna. The retirees asserted that the Advantage Plan would strip them of benefits, force them to choose new doctors in the midst of treatment and deny essential treatment.
The Court of Appeals judges ruled that “petitioners failed to introduce sufficient evidence to establish that the City’s decision to shift retirees to the Aetna MAP constitutes a diminution in retiree benefits or the City’s contributions for those benefits,” according to the court document. The Court of Appeals reversed the mid-level Appellate Court’s decision and remitted it to Supreme Court for further proceedings…