Health & Welfare

TRUSTEES’ 2021 REPORT

For the full 2021 Annual Report, please refer to the Forms and Library section.

WELFARE – WHAT’S NEW?

Plan Communication

We are committing to improve communication for plan members and began this initiative in 2021 with a revamp of the website by enhancing existing content and adding additional information.  We encourage all members to visit the site to view the changes, as well as to refamiliarize yourself with some of the features of the Welfare Plan.

In addition to the Annual Report, we will be sending out a mid-year newsletter to active plan members and retirees to update you about anything new you need to know.  Expect this to come your way in summer 2022.

Optical Reimbursement Changes

The plan now requires prescriptions submitted along with any optical reimbursement expense for glasses/frames to be dated within the previous 24 months from the date of purchase.  Prescriptions must be in an official format from a vision care supplier (registered optometrist/optician).

In addition, effective January 1, 2022, members must provide a completed Optical Claim Form along with their purchase receipt and prescription.  To obtain an Optical Claim Form, please contact the Welfare Plan office or download/print the form from the website (Forms Library).

Delisted Optical Providers

Please note that effective immediately expenses from the following providers are no longer approved for reimbursement under any circumstances: 

  • Your Eyes Only Optical
  • Skylight Optical
  • Eyesberg
  • Yaohan Optical
  • Galaxy Eyewear
  • Vision Express
  • House of Vision Optical

Important Note:  The only online suppliers accepted are Clearly Contacts, Zenni Optical, or Firmoo Optical Store.
The deadline for reimbursement for all expenses is March 31 of the year following the year of the expense.

Optical Claim Submission Methods

Claim Requirements

  • Expenses for corrective laser eye surgery, cataract lenses and eye examinations that are not covered by the BC Medical Plan are
  • Eyeglasses/contact lenses require a prescription for Credit card, cash or debit purchases require a register receipt to validate payment.
  • Purchases of frames only are not eligible for
  • Claim forms are required as of January 1, 2022 and must be completed in full by the member and returned via hardcopy, email or fax to the Welfare Plan office along with:
    • An itemized paid receipt. Handwritten receipts are not
    • An official optical (from a licensed optometrist) prescription. Prescriptions must not be less than 24 months old from the date of service
    • Claim forms are available from the Welfare Plan office or can be downloaded from the Forms and Library section on the

Submitting Optical Benefit Claims

The benefits office will now accept claims by mail, e-mail, or fax for optical. Please keep your original receipts in case we ask to see them.

The following documents and information are required for reimbursement:

  1. Optical Claim Form (effective January 1, 2022)
  2. Itemized original paid receipt
  3. Method of Payment – cashier till slip, Interac receipt, credit card receipt, or redacted banking statement
  4. Prescription (must be within two (2) years from the date of purchase)
  5. Member’s Name
  6. Member’s Address (Full Street Address, City, Province, and Postal Code)

E-Mail: info@213benefits.org
Fax: (604) 571-6544
Mailing Address:

Local 213 Electrical Workers’ Welfare Plan
1424 Broadway Street
Port Coquitlam, B.C.
V3C 5W2

Plan Design Changes

The Trustees are pleased to advise members of the following plan improvements to go into effect January 1, 2022:

Plans A, B, C:  Pacific Blue Cross – $100 Annual Deductible Reduce to $50

The annual deductible for any Pacific Blue Cross prescription drug, health professionals, or medical supplies will reduce from $100 per family per calendar year to $50 per family per calendar year.  This is an important change that impacts all members on all Plans and means more money in your pocket.

Plan A: Income Continuance – Monthly Benefit Increase from $1,000 to $1,250

The monthly benefit for individuals currently receiving Income Continuance and any newly eligible plan members will adjust to $1,250 per month.  This adjustment will be initiated at the end of January 2022 Income Continuance benefit payment.

Plan A: Supplemental Health Account – Inclusion of Health Professional Reimbursement Once PBC Maximum is Reached

The Supplemental Health Account allowance of $750 per family per calendar can again be utilized towards eligible practitioners once the Pacific Blue Cross maximum has been reached.  Proof of reaching the calendar limit with Pacific Blue Cross must be provided in the form of a claim history printout from the member’s Pacific Blue Cross account.  Allowable practitioners are those covered under the Plan by Pacific Blue Cross and include acupuncture, podiatrist, speech pathologist, massage therapy/physiotherapy, chiropractor/naturopathy, or psychologist/clinical counsellor.

Important Note: the Supplemental Health Account balance will still be defaulted to pay automatically for overages on dental/optical/hearing aids.  If a member does not want their Supplemental Health Account to be applied in this manner, they must indicate this when submitting their dental/optical/hearing aid claims.

Plan A and B: Accidental Death and Dismemberment Coverage to Match Life Insurance

The Trustees are pleased to include a new benefit as part of the Welfare Plan offering to members effective January 1, 2022. The new Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) coverage matches existing Life Insurance coverage for members of Plans A and B:

AD & D Coverage Plan A Plan B
Loss of Life Benefit

< age 65

65 and up

  

$100,000

$35,000

  

$100,000

N/A

For more detail on this new benefit, please refer to the detailed coverage section of this website.

Contributions and Self-Pay Rates

Contributions and Self Pay Rates

  • The Trustees are pleased to confirm that health and welfare contribution will remain at $2.30 per hour for 2022, a rate that has been unchanged since 2016.
  • In addition, Self Pay rates for Plans A, B and C will remain unchanged. Please refer to the Self Pay section.

Supplemental Health Account

How It Works:

The Supplemental Health Account provides plan members on plan “A” with additional flexibility. Expenses that exceed the annual maximums for Dental, Optical, and/or Hearing Aids can be submitted towards this Account. The claim requirements are the same with regard to required information as described in the Dental/Optical/Hearing Aids sections.

In addition, effective January 1, 2022, this account can again be utilized towards Pacific Blue Cross health practitioners once the annual maximum is reached.

  • Proof of reaching the calendar limit with Pacific Blue Cross must be provided in the form of a claim history printout from the member’s Pacific Blue Cross
  • Eligible practitioners are those covered under the Plan by Pacific Blue Cross and include acupuncture, podiatrist, speech pathologist, massage therapy/physiotherapy, chiropractor/naturopathy, or psychologist/clinical counsellor.
Benefit Plan A Plan B Plan C
Supplemental Health Account $750 per family per year N/A N/A

This benefit will be applied first automatically to any dental, optical and/or hearing aid overages up to the $750 supplemental limit. If a member is managing their benefits and does not want the supplemental benefit to be applied automatically, you must indicate this by written request when submitting optical/dental/hearing aid claims that may lead to overages.

Important Note: Members must have at least four (4) months of coverage in the calendar year for them to be eligible to claim against this Account.

Wage Indemnity (WI)

For 2021, the Wage Indemnity benefit is $85 per day ($595 per week) for a maximum period of 52 weeks, including any Employment Insurance (EI) sick benefit entitlement. The EI sick benefit maximum payment is $595 per week and it now only requires 600 hours of insurable employment to qualify for EI sick benefits. In addition, there is no longer a waiting period for qualification. If you become disabled while on an existing EI Claim, you simply apply to EI to convert your claim from regular to sick benefits any time during the claim period and there is no waiting period.

Note for 2022, the Plan’s Wage Indemnity benefit will increase with the EI maximum. At the time of this report’s printing the new EI maximum was not available yet from Service Canada.

Members must use up any EI sick benefits entitlement before coming onto our Wage Indemnity Plan. When a covered member has exhausted their EI sick benefits, or does not qualify, then our Plan will pay benefits as outlined above.

We reimburse up to twenty-five dollars ($25) for the cost of Doctors completing the Wage Indemnity claim forms. A paid receipt should accompany the claim form.

Please note that to qualify for our Wage Indemnity benefit, members must:

  • have a current Hour Bank
  • have worked within 90 days of disability
  • provide EI claim information provided by Service Canada (instructions are on the Welfare benefits site as to how to provide this proof)
  • not be in arrears with respect to Union dues

Benefits are payable on the fourth day of sickness and the first day of a non-occupational accident (Note that the sickness waiting period would only apply if the member does not qualify for EI sick benefits). Benefits will not be paid prior to the first day you are seen by a doctor. A claimant must be unable to perform any occupation, and the disability requires the full-time monitoring of a doctor recognized by the college of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia.

Exclusions

No benefits will be paid for periods of disability arising from:

  • Occupational accidents or illness.
  • Self-inflicted injuries or diseases.
  • Injuries or diseases resulting from war, or participation in a riot, or arising while serving as a member of any armed forces.
  • Medical conditions existing prior to commencement of coverage.
  • Disability must occur within a 90-day period immediately following the last day of work with a contributing employer.
  • No benefits are payable for injuries or illness as a result of an automobile incident for which ICBC or other automobile insurance applies.
  • No benefits will be paid for any period for which the person has, or will, received vacation pay for an annual vacation or V.O. time (V.O. time may be collected for the three-day waiting period)
  • No benefits are payable for Employment Insurance (EI) overpayments, violations or other penalties imposed under the Employment Insurance Act.

Income Continuance

If a member is still disabled after 52 weeks of Wage Indemnity, they may be entitled to the monthly Income Continuance benefit.

The current benefit amount for 2021 is $1,000 per month, but this will increase to $1,250 per month for individuals who are still (and newly) disabled under the terms of the Plan on and after January 1, 2022.

To apply for the Income Continuance benefit, you must:

  • Have more than 10 years of membership in Local 213 IBEW
    • Members with less than 10 years of membership will be prorated according to their number of years in Local 213 IBEW
  • Have been covered by our Welfare Plan for 48 of the last 60 months preceding your date of disability
  • Not be in arrears with respect to Union dues

In addition:

  • Have made application and be receiving the CPP disability pension, and/or
  • Satisfied the Trustees of the Plan of your continuing disability.

Extended Health Benefits – Pacific Blue Cross (PBC)

Deductible & Coinsurance

For each calendar year, you will be required to pay the first $50 deductible (per family, per calendar year – reduced from $100 January 1, 2022) and 20% of all eligible expenses after that. Once an individual reaches $1,000 in claims reimbursed in a calendar year, all further eligible expenses are covered 100%.

In Memoriam

It is with regret that we report the deaths of the following members, including Retired Members, who have passed away since our last report:
Keith Apps Thomas Archibald Robert Baker Trevor Barrow
Jared Brandt Robert Brown Adri Brugge Donald Campbell
Howard Campbell George M. Corness Richard Daurie James Dooley
Kenneth Douglas Brian Emerson J.D. Erho Harry Flach
John Fleming Mike Flynn Tom Gates Ezzat Ghabriel
Douglas Gunning M. Russ Gurniak James Hay Clifford Hagel
August Heidrich Ronald Hillier Robert Holst Robert (Bruce) Hudson
Heinz Huebner Soren Jensen Paul Johnson Dennis Kelly
Robert Kincaid Harry Kneale Rudy Kuhn Gordon Kurtz
Philip Lawrey James Lentz Thomas Liversidge Harvey Macgregor
Roger Marquis Ryan Marshall Robert McCormick Ian McNay
Allan Oliver Joseph Ovsenek Brandon Painter Charles Peck
Ole Pedersen Joe Pilorusso Ivan (John) Plese Ted Powell
Martti Raty Richard Rauch Ray Ravis William Ripley
Joseph Sanzalone Sean Alex Saunar Edward Schreiber Bruce Spargo
Bill Tamboureas Douglas Thorpe Guy Tryssenaar George Vukasovic
Otmar Wetzlmayr

 

PENSION – WHAT’S NEW?

Pension Plan Update

As of the end of September 2021, there are 1,604 retirees receiving pensions from the Local 213 Electrical Workers Pension Plan. The total pension amount paid out in the past fiscal year was $11,919,834, averaging to $7,431 annually per member. The following chart diagrams active (still contributing) members, pensioners, pensions paid and average annual pension paid from the plan over the past five years. Note – pensions paid out are represented in the $1,000s.

Retiree Update

The following plan members have retired since our last report. We would like to wish all the new retirees a happy and healthy retirement.
Ilie Baliban Jerry Baron Donald Bowman James Boyes
Thomas Bulger James Cumberland Antoni Czuprynski David Elliott
Richard Gallant John Giannone Donald Gulliver Randy Haddock
Gordon Hansen Ken Heatley Kevin Hsu Maurizzio Infanti
Kevin King Michael Lehane James Lentz Ian Lowrie
Jeff Lueck Robert Marsden Thomas McKenna Gerald McQueen
Thomas Mecredy Nils Midttun Steven Mitchell Craig Morisset
Warren Munroe David Oberholtzer Michael Otway Mike Paradise
Richard Piendl Ian Price Param Reddy Taras Sakin
Stephen Sallaway Frank Scheu Robert Shaw Edison Sy
W. (John) Watt Kenneth Whittet Robert Yoxall

 

Banquet Report/Member Service Recognition

Due to COVID-19 restrictions the annual retired member’s banquet was cancelled for 2021. Hopefully, we can resume our retired member’s banquet in 2022.

50 Year Pins
Kenneth Bisgard Bert Broughton Fred Feige Arthur Giassa
Erling Johansson Duff Jolly Horst Kirchhoff Martin Law
Brian Martin Douglas McLaren Joe Warren Harold Winegarden

 

55 Year Pins
William Allen Gordon Appleton Dennis Booth Robert Dyck
Gary Everett Achilles Foufoulas Jan Hazenack Ken Heiman
Freddy Hoffman Michael Hunt Chris M. Locke William Munro
Martin Murao John Neilson Chaki Nishimura Augustus Pelley
Michael Ramberg Hans Rand Anthony Schmidt Richard Scrafton
Albert Sproson Robert Stdenis Luke Stienstra Robert Taylor
Robert Thorneloe John Watmough

 

60 Year Pins
Bruce McArthur John Payne

 

65 Year Pins
Raymond Broccoli Harry Broome George Brown Richard Brown
Tony Chwartacki William Devries Mike Krilanovich Emil Lange
Dennis Mawdsley Hugh Meikle Leon Nermo William Smith

 

Retired Members’ Committee

From L to R: Jim Dyball (IBEW 213 President), Roland Verrier (Retired Member Committee Co-Chair), Jim Lofty (IBEW 213 Business Mgr/Financial Secretary), Helmut Kugler, Keith O’Sullivan, Jack Saran (Retired Member Committee Co- Chair), Ken Heatley (IBEW 213 Recording Secretary), Lloyd Yip, Mick Hunt, John Neilson, Pat English, Kumar Sikka, Chuck Baker, Bill McCallion, Rick Christie and Neil Goudriaan.

The Retired Members’ Committee is dedicated to keeping the union spirit alive through fellowship; supporting fellow retired members and staying active in IBEW 213 union affairs! The Committee meets on the second Tuesday every month at 10 a.m. at the Union Hall. Any retired member or former member of IBEW 213 is welcome to join.

For more information, please go to: http://www.ibew213.org/ibew-committees/retired-members.