City auditing worker and retiree healthcare dependents

First comprehensive, citywide check since 2013 seeks to save $100M

For the first time in over a decade, the city has begun a comprehensive audit of dependents on city employee and retiree healthcare plans. The Dependent Eligibility Verification Audit administered by the city’s Office of Labor Relations aims to weed out those dependents who have become ineligible to be covered by the city’s healthcare plan, with the goal of saving $100 million this fiscal year in reduced city healthcare costs. 

The DEVA was one of over a dozen savings measures that Mayor Zohran Mamdani laid out in a May budget plan with the aim of securing 2.5 percent savings from every single agency. The audit was the single largest savings measure by dollar amount laid out in that plan.