Did you know that incomplete or inaccurate information can make it difficult for us to find your beneficiaries?
To help ensure that your beneficiaries receive your survivor benefits, it’s important that we have complete information on file to locate them at all times.
Everything comes to an end. Some endings can be pretty bittersweet. Consider last call at your favorite local dive bar, that last slice of pizza in the box, or maybe, the hour bank and MRP program coming to an end last October.
Didn’t know that? Okay, I’m just going to point out here how very sad that is to us.
Notice Requirement. The Department of Defense strongly recommends that reservists provide notice to their civilian employers and Union Benefit Offices at least 30 days prior to departure for uniformed service. With that said, the Benefit Fund Office of the I.B.E.W. Local 697 understands that this is not always feasible to do.
More accessible, Convenient Healthcare for You and Your Family. Too busy to take the time to see a doctor? Does the urgent care center have inconvenient hours? According to one survey, one in two adult Americans (51 percent) have trouble finding suitable healthcare options on nights and weekends, leaving the local emergency room as the only option if care is needed in these particular times.
Because you and your family deserve to be associated with the most qualified doctor. The simple fact is that not all doctors are experienced or deliver quality care. Sad, but nevertheless true. What is also factual is that there are risks and costs associated with receiving substandard care.
Effective July 1, 2019, the Health and Benefit Plan will no longer exclude out-of-network facilities and physician for the following well-ness exams:
Bone Density,
Cardiac Risk Assessments,
Cervical Exams,
Colorectal Cancer,
Diabetic Assessments,
Immunizations, Mammograms,
Pap Tests,
Physicals,
PSA (Prostate Cancer Tests)
As with all treatments performed in an out of network facility or performed by an out-of-network physician, payment for services received will be paid at the rate of 70% of 130% of the Medicare allowance.
Effective July 1, 2019, supplemental unemployment benefit fund balances of existing retirees or new retirees going forward will automatically be transferred into their HRA accounts.
Additionally, as some retirees could have a full HRA account, as well as a full SUB Fund account, the Trustees have voted to increase the HRA limit for retirees from $17,000.00 to $25,000.00.
For example, if a member had $8,000 in his or her S.U.B. Fund and had a full HRA account ($17,000.00) upon his or her retirement, the Plan would transfer over to this participants HRA account the $8,000.00. The new combined total of that retiree’s HRA account would then be $25,000.00.
Example #2: If upon retirement a member had $1,600.00 in his or her S.U.B. Fund account and $9,800.00 dollars in their HRA account, their S.U.B. Fund balance of $1,600.00 would be transferred to their HRA account which would subsequently total $11,400.00.
How does the transfer of the balance help a retiree?
Under the provisions of the S.U.B. Fund, retirees can only utilize S.U.B. Fund balances to offset self-payment premiums to the Health and Benefit Plan.
You may or may not be aware that smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Also, you may or may not be aware that the Lake County Indiana NECA – I.B.E.W. Health and Benefit Plan makes tobacco cessation services available to all participants enrolled in or provided through a physician-supervised smoking cessation program.
Effective July 1, 2019, the following improvements will be made to the Plan:
All existing post 65 participants with Plan P credits less than or equal to $13.00 will be raised to the $14.00 going forward. And,
Participants retiring early (Pre-65) on or after July 1, 2019 that have 40 or more years of credit, will receive the full $58.00 Plan P rate.
Effective, July 1, 2019 the Lake County Indiana NECA – I.B.E.W. Health and Benefit Plan will cover oral contraceptives.
All current pharmaceutical co-pays and/or co-insurance provisions will apply to all oral contraceptive products prescribed by a treating physician.