2023 Oklahoma Statutes › Title 74. State Government › §74-1303. Definitions.

For the purposes of and as used in the Oklahoma Employees Insurance and Benefits Act:
1. "Board" means the Oklahoma Employees Insurance and Benefits Board as created by the Oklahoma Employees Insurance and Benefits Act;
2. "Plan" means the Oklahoma Employees Insurance Plan;
3. "Employee" means those state employees, education employees and other eligible employees participating in the Oklahoma Employees Insurance and Benefits Act;
4. "Education employee" means those employees other than adjunct professors employed by a state institution of higher education, in the service of an education entity who are members or are or will be eligible to become members of the Teachers’ Retirement System of Oklahoma and who receive compensation for such service after the education entity begins to participate in the Oklahoma Employees Insurance and Benefits Act and visiting faculty who are not eligible for membership in the Teachers’ Retirement System of Oklahoma;
5. "Adjunct professor" means a person employed by an institution of higher education who is attached in a subordinate or temporary capacity to the faculty or staff, and who is contracted to instruct in a given specific discipline;
6. "Visiting faculty" means a person employed by an institution of higher education who is not eligible for academic rank or tenure, other than an adjunct professor, and who is contracted to instruct in a given specific discipline generally not to exceed one (1) academic year;
7. "Education entity" means a school district, a technology center school district, or an institution comprising The Oklahoma State System of Higher Education;
8. "State employee" means and includes each officer or employee in the service of the State of Oklahoma who, after January 1, 1966, received compensation for service rendered to the State of Oklahoma on a warrant issued pursuant to a payroll certified by a department or by an elected or duly appointed officer of the state or who receives payment for the performance of personal services on a warrant issued pursuant to a payroll certified by a department and drawn by the State Treasurer against appropriations made by the Legislature from any state fund or against trust funds held by the State Treasurer, who is employed in a position normally requiring actual performance of duty during not less than one thousand (1,000) hours per year, and whose employment is not seasonal or temporary, except that a person elected by popular vote will be considered an employee during the person’s tenure in office; provided, however, that employees who are otherwise eligible who are on approved leave without pay shall be eligible to continue coverage during such leave not to exceed twenty-four (24) months, as provided and published in the Office of Management and Enterprise Services Rules for Employment, from the date the employee goes on such leave provided the employee pays the full premiums due or persons who are drawing disability benefits under the State Employees Disability Program Act or meet each and every requirement of the State Employees Disability Program shall be eligible to continue coverage provided the person pays the full premiums due;
9. "Carrier" means the State of Oklahoma or a state designated Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). Such HMO shall be a federally qualified Health Maintenance Organization under 42 U.S.C., Section 300e et seq.;
10. "Health insurance plan" means a self-insured plan by the State of Oklahoma for the purpose of paying the cost of hospital and medical care up to the maximum coverage provided by said plan or prepaid medical plan(s) offered to employees as an alternative to the state-administered plan by federally qualified HMOs which have contracted with the state;
11. "Life insurance plan" means a self-insured plan for the purpose of paying death and dismemberment benefits up to the maximum coverage provided by the plan;
12. "Dental benefits plan" means a plan by the State of Oklahoma for the purpose of paying the cost of dental care up to the maximum coverage provided by the plan; whenever the term "dental insurance plan" or a term of like import appears in the Oklahoma Employees Insurance and Benefits Act, the term shall mean "dental benefits plan";
13. "Other insurance" means any type of coverage other than basic hospital and medical benefits, major medical benefits, comprehensive benefits, life insurance benefits or dental insurance benefits, which the Plan may be directed to offer;
14. "Dependent" means an employee’s spouse or any unmarried child:
a.
under the age of twenty-five (25) years, regardless of residence, provided that the employee is primarily responsible for their support, including:
(1)
an adopted child, and
(2)
a stepchild or child who lives with the employee in a regular parent-child relationship, or
b.
regardless of age who is incapable of self-support because of mental or physical incapacity that existed prior to reaching the age of twenty-five (25) years;
15. "Comprehensive benefits" means benefits which reimburse the expense of hospital room and board, other hospital services, certain outpatient expenses, maternity benefits, surgical expense, including obstetrical care, in-hospital medical care expense, diagnostic radiological and laboratory benefits, physicians’ services provided by house and office calls, treatments administered in physicians’ office, prescription drugs, psychiatric services, Christian Science practitioners’ services, Christian Science nurses’ services, optometric medical services for injury or illness of the eye, home health care, home nursing service, hospice care, and such other benefits as may be determined by the Board. Such benefits shall be provided on a copayment or coinsurance basis, the insured to pay a proportion of the cost of such benefits, and may be subject to a deductible that applies to all or part of the benefits as determined by the Board; and
16. "Life insurance coverage" shall include a maximum amount of basic life insurance or benefit with or without a double indemnity provision and an amount of accidental death and dismemberment insurance or benefit per employee to be provided by the State of Oklahoma, and the employee shall have the option to purchase additional life insurance or benefits on the employee’s life up to the amount provided by the plan. Such basic life insurance benefits, with or without double indemnity, and accidental death and dismemberment benefits shall not exclude coverage for death or dismemberment resulting from war, insurrection or riot. The Board may also extend dependent life insurance in an amount to be determined by the Board to each insured employee who elects to insure the employee’s eligible dependents. Premiums for the dependent life insurance shall be paid wholly by the employee.
Added by Laws 1967, c. 374, § 3, emerg. eff. May 23, 1967. Amended by Laws 1970, c. 70, § 3, emerg. eff. March 17, 1970; Laws 1977, c. 261, § 1, emerg. eff. June 17, 1977; Laws 1979, c. 47, § 100, emerg. eff. April 9, 1979; Laws 1982, c. 333, § 3, emerg. eff. June 1, 1982; Laws 1985, c. 230, § 2, emerg. eff. July 8, 1985; Laws 1986, c. 150, § 2, emerg. eff. April 29, 1986; Laws 1988, c. 165, § 4, operative July 1, 1988; Laws 1988, c. 298, § 53, operative July 1, 1988; Laws 1989, c. 322, § 1, emerg. eff. May 26, 1989; Laws 1990, c. 244, § 1, eff. July 1, 1990; Laws 1991, c. 219, § 3, emerg. eff. May 22, 1991; Laws 1991, c. 335, § 34, emerg. eff. June 15, 1991; Laws 1993, c. 239, § 54, eff. July 1, 1993; Laws 1995, c. 239, § 1, emerg. eff. May 24, 1995; Laws 1998, c. 377, § 6, eff. Nov. 1, 1998; Laws 1999, c. 339, § 1, eff. July 1, 1999; Laws 2001, c. 33, § 177, eff. July 1, 2001; Laws 2004, c. 345, § 1, eff. July 1, 2004; Laws 2006, c. 231, § 1, eff. July 1, 2006; Laws 2008, c. 415, § 13, eff. July 1, 2008; Laws 2012, c. 303, § 13, eff. Nov. 1, 2012.
NOTE: Laws 1991, c. 65, § 1 repealed by Laws 1991, c. 335, § 37, emerg. eff. June 15, 1991. Laws 2008, c. 344, § 11 repealed by Laws 2009, c. 2, § 36, emerg. eff. March 12, 2009.