IBEW Local 894 - Benefit Plan

Health and Welfare Trustees

  Jim Barlow Bill Debosky  
  Larry Lytle Doug Hutchinson  
  Gerry Tyhuis Bill MacDonald  

Forms

Group Benefits Booklet

View an online copy of the Group Benefits Booklet. Booklets have been mailed to all plan members.

Benefit Summary for Active Members

UPDATES

January 2012

The Health & Welfare Trustees are pleased to inform you they have authorized an improvement to the basis of payment for eligible dental services, incurred on/after January 1, 2012 to the 2010 Ontario Dental Association suggested Fee Guide for General Practitioners.  The dental coverage currently pays claims based on the 2009 Ontario Dental Association Fee Guide.

The Health & Welfare Trustees also had the opportunity to meet with ClaimSecure, the prescription drug carrier of the Benefit Plan.  It is useful to know that on the ClaimSecure website there is a list of all “Special Authorization Drugs” as well as an eProfile site that a member can sign into. The site has a substantial amount of information including member drug claims history and research tools to learn more about your health.

October 2011

The Trustees are pleased to announce that Manulife Financial has renewed the premium rates. They have negotiated a decrease in the rates and a refund cheque will be coming back to the Welfare Fund. The Trustees, therefore, have decided it is not necessary to increase the drawdown totals.

The Trustees have decided that in future the "Pay Direct Notices" sent to members on a monthly basis will be sent by registered mail. These notices are sent to members who have less than the current premium amount in their Health & Welfare dollar bank. If the member has not worked the required number of hours to cover the premium, then the member has the option to buy the Benefit Plan. The Trustees want to ensure that members are receiving these letters. Please keep your addresses up to date with the Union Office.

ClaimSecure has informed us that if for some reason you don't use your prescription drug card and need to submit a paper claim, that the paper claim can now be submitted by email through the ClaimSecure Web site. You would set up an eProfile account with ClaimSecure in order to submit a claim. If you have any questions regarding this service, you can call ClaimSecure at 1-888-479-7587.

January 2011

The Health & Welfare Trustees are pleased to announce that there is an improvement to the dental plan.  Effective January 1, 2011 eligible dental services will be paid based on the 2009 Ontario Dental Association Fee Guide.  This is an increase from the 2008 Ontario Dental Association Fee Guide.

June 2008

Effective August 1, 2008, the monthly Dollar Bank Drawdown and Pay Direct charge will be increased.

Currently an Active Member's Dollar Bank Draw Down is $310.00 per month. Effective August 1st, 2008 the monthly Draw Down will be $350.00. This increase partially takes into account the recent increase in the Contribution Rate. The increase in the Contribution Rate also allows the Member's Dollar Bank to continue to grow.

Effective August 1st, 2008 the maximum a Member can hold in his Health & Welfare Dollar Bank will increase to $4,200.00

The current charge for Active Members who are on Pay Direct is $267.00, plus taxes. Effective August 1st, 2008 the Pay Direct charge will be $275.00. Provincial Sales Tax of $22.00 and $1.18 of Ontario Premium Tax will be added to the monthly Pay Direct charge for a total monthly Pay Direct charge of $298.18. Since this increase is effective for the benefit month of August 2008 the first payment would be due September 10th, 2008.

The Trustees have decided to leave all other Pay Direct charges the same and to continue to subsidize these costs out of the Unallocated Reserve. If you have any questions regarding these changes you may contact Sue O'Neill at the Union Office.

Revised Member Information Cards

The Health and Welfare Trustees are pleased to inform you there are new revised “Member Information Cards” available at the Union Office. These cards are used to record your beneficiary information for the Benefit Plan’s Life Insurance coverage.

Please be aware the insurance company will not issue a cheque for life insurance to beneficiaries under the age of 18. On the new “Member Information Cards” a member can name beneficiaries younger than 18 as long as they name a Trustee. It would then be the Trustee named on the card that would receive the life insurance payment.

Also, if a member wishes, he/she may name a primary and a contingent beneficiary on the revised card. An example of this would be to name the husband or wife as primary beneficiary and the children as contingent beneficiaries, and if husband and wife both die at the same time, the contingent beneficiaries would receive the life insurance benefit.

If you wish to review or update your beneficiary information please contact Sue O'Neill at the Union Office.

Top of page