Thousands of eligible city retirees in Detroit have limited time left to recoup millions in out-of-pocket costs for medical co-pays and prescriptions they paid for in 2015, according to The Detroit News.
A final call if coming from Detroit's two independent healthcare trusts, which were created as part of the city's landmark bankruptcy in 2013. One trust is for general retirees, while another is for police officers and firefighters who retired by Dec. 31, 2014.
Officials with the healthcare trusts said eligible retirees with health reimbursement accounts are entitled to more than 60 percent of reimbursement funds that were not claimed for the 2015 calendar year, according to the report. Now, retirees have until March 31 — the end of a 90-day grace period — to submit receipts to recoup eligible medical costs.
If retirees don't recoup their money, about $5.2 million in unused dollars won't roll over, according to the report.
"A lot of people fell off the map because they didn't realize that they had that benefit coming to them, and they never applied for it," Greg Trozak, a Police and Fire Retirement System trustee, who formerly served as chairman of the healthcare trust for police and fire, told The Detroit News. "We are trying to coordinate and get everybody hooked back in."
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