Unused sick leave may be converted to credits to pay for State Group Health Insurance at layoff, termination with 20 years of service, retirement, or death.
There are two programs that determine the value of sick leave credits at retirement. The Accumulated Sick Leave Conversion Credit (ASLCC) Program and the Supplemental Health Insurance Conversion Credit (SHICC) Program.
- ASLCC Program allows employees to convert sick leave to pay for health insurance at retirement, as well as in other situations such as death, layoff or termination with 20 years of service. Under this program, accumulated sick leave is multiplied by the employee’s highest basic pay rate in a qualifying position and converted to credits to pay for State Group Health Insurance in retirement (or in the other instances listed above).
- SHICC Program allows employees who have at least 15 years of continuous state service to earn sick leave credits in addition to those provided by the ASLCC Program. Eligible employees earn up to 52 supplemental credits/year for years 1-24 of service and up to 104 supplemental credits/year for years 25 and beyond. Note: the number of supplemental credits provided may not exceed the actual number of sick leave credit hours an employee has accumulated.
If you are eligible, at termination or retirement, your sick leave credits will automatically be certified with the Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF).
If you have comparable health insurance coverage through another source such as other post-termination employment, your spouse’s non-state health insurance plan, or some other source you may be eligible to escrow your sick leave credits. Escrowing your sick leave means to preserve or bank your sick leave credits for use at a later date. You can escrow your sick leave credits multiple times, though no more than once each year. In order to escrow your sick leave credits you must have been covered by the State Group Health insurance program on the day you terminated state employment either as an employee or as a covered dependent and be eligible to convert sick leave credits to pay State Group Health insurance premiums. You may escrow your sick leave credits at any time during the year, but you can only re-enroll for State Group Health insurance coverage during the annual benefits enrollment period unless you have an involuntary loss of your comparable non-state coverage. You must also have continuously maintained comparable non-state health insurance coverage while your sick leave credits were in escrow.
Additional information on the Sick Leave Credit Conversion Program that include a detailed brochure on the program, an estimator tool and videos can be accessed in the links below.
Resources
Every effort has been made to ensure this information is current and correct. Information on this page does not guarantee enrollment, benefits and/or the ability to make changes to your benefits.
Updated: 03/20/2023