Due to the travel ban, employees should not partake in non-essential travel. Travel benefits are active and available for employees performing an essential service or those who are unable to return home.

Your benefits will continue for as long as premiums are paid by your employer.

In order to make an STD claim we need a Consent Form, Employer Statement, Employee Statement, and Plan Member Confirmation of Illness. Once completed, email these forms to hr@bccabenefits.ca.

There are two options. We can either:

• Terminate employee benefits as of their last day worked or
• Extend benefits for one, two, or three months. Employee benefits are automatically terminated if the employee is no longer employed by the date of extension. The employee’s coverage can be fully reinstated if they are employed after the date of extension.

We offer a 30 day grace period. Premiums for April are due April 1st. However, until April 30th your plan will not be affected. Your plan will be suspended if premiums have not been paid after April 30. The plan will remain active, but no claims can be made. If this happens, employees can hold onto receipts until premiums have been paid, after which the plan would be reactivated. They can submit those backdated receipts after reactivation.

We see this situation similar to a layoff. We can:

• Terminate employee benefits as of their last day worked,
• Extend benefits for one, two, or three months. Employee benefits are automatically terminated if the employee is no longer employed by the date of extension. The employee’s coverage can be fully reinstated if they are employed after the date of extension, or
• Your employee benefit plan can remain active until your business reopens.

Yes. Employees should apply for EI in the absence of an internal Sick Leave policy.

You have three options to help you pay your premiums:

• We can set your account up for Pre-Authorized Debits (PAD). Email hr@bccabenefits.ca to set up PAD. This can be set up temporarily or you can choose to leave it in place moving forward.
• Set up Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT)
• You can mail a cheque to our address:

BCCA Employee Benefit Trust
Suite 120-4401 Still Creek Drive
Burnaby, BC V5C 6G9

The fastest way to receive your monthly invoices is to sign up for access to our Electronic Administration System (EAS). EAS allows you to view the information on record for each employee, make changes, view your benefit summary, and download new and previous invoices. Contact hr@bccabenefits.ca to set up EAS and access your invoices.

Canada Life (formerly Great West Life) has relaxed their minimum hours worked requirement for plan member eligibility until May 31st. Therefore, if employees are working at least 15 hours per week, they may remain on the plan for all benefits.

With respect to their benefit amount eligibility, Canada Life has committed to cover the higher benefit amounts. This means that even though employees may only be working 15 hours per week and their salaries may go down, employees may continue to keep their regular benefit amounts for Life and LTD. However, if you do not want to have employees covered for their standard Life and LTD benefits, we can make salary adjustments and have those benefits reflect the new lesser amount.

To request employee kits, just complete this form and leave the rest to us. We will mail them out to you as soon as we receive the form.

Terminating employees is simple. You can either log-in to your EAS account and proceed with the termination on there or email hr@bccabenefits.ca with the full name and las-day-of-work of the employee to be terminated.

Please provide notification to the BCCA Employee Benefit Trust office prior to the 12th of the month. Changes to an employee’s insurance must be reported within 31 days from the date of change.  To ensure that employee coverage changes are reflected on your next premium statement, complete a BCCA EBT Group Enrollment form or BCCA EBT Employee Change form and forward the original, signed form to the BCCA Employee Benefits office immediately. You can fax a copy, but we must also receive the original. Please keep a copy for your records.

Please advise the BCCA Employee Benefits office of the last day worked for any employee terminations. Employers can email us directly at hr@bccabenefits.ca, or send a fax notice to 604-299-2982. Terminations will be processed through the emails we receive; no additional paperwork is required.

No. You should submit changes without adjusting the premium amount due. Your next invoice will indicate the credit or the back charges for the changes submitted.

15 hours for EHC, Vision and Dental, 21 hours for Critical Illness and Life Insurance, AD&D, Dependent Life, and 30 hours for Disability.

Enrolment in the health and dental plans are mandatory for all full-time employees unless they have similar coverage through a spouse‘s plan. This is the only circumstance where an employee would be permitted to waive coverage and they must indicate “Waived” on Part 1 of the BCCA EBT Group Insurance Application form and indicate their spouse’s insurer and policy number in Part 2. The original must be sent into the BCCA Employee Benefits office for processing.

In the event a covered employee is temporarily laid-off, an employer can request for benefits continuation under the BCCA Employee Benefit Trust to a maximum of 3 months from the last day the employee is at work. It is important to note that Short and/or Long Term Disability cannot continue during a lay-off and will terminate on the date of the lay-off.

For all other benefits which are continued, premiums will remain payable. If the employer requests a lay-off extension and the employee has not resumed working at the end of the 3-month period, all benefits coverage will terminate. Please note that coverage terminates effective 3 months from the last day worked and does not extend until the end of the month. As with any termination, if an employee’s last day of coverage is during the middle of the a month, the full month’s premium is due.

If you would like to continue the benefits coverage for an employee during a lay-off period, a written request must be submitted to hr@bccabenefits.ca stating the employee’s name, the date the lay-off begins and the benefits that you are requesting to continue, excluding disability benefits.

When the employee returns to work, please advise the BCCA Employee Benefits Office immediately by fax or email and all benefits will be reinstated on the returned to work date.

An individual can be considered a full time student up to the age of 25 if they are registered at a high school, university, trade school, college or similar educational institution and attending on a full time basis.

You are encouraged to check into additional out-of-country emergency medical insurance while travelling outside of Canada. Your BCCA Employee Benefit Trust plan includes Out-of-Province emergency coverage as part of your Extended Health Care coverage for employees and their dependents. If you are travelling away this summer, review your coverage for Pacific Blue Cross (PBC) or Green Shield Canada (GSC).

The maximum insured amount should be adequate in most situations. If you suddenly become ill while traveling, you should call Pacific Blue Cross’ Medi-Assist hotline at the following numbers:

Pacific Blue Cross

Canada/US (toll-free): 1-888-699-9333
Outside of Canada/US (call collect):  604-419-4487

The customer service representatives at Medi-Assist can help co-ordinate your coverage options.

Green Shield Canada

The contact number is 1-800-936-6226 toll free. If the toll free number does not work, you can use the collect number: operator+519-742-3556. GSC Travel Assistance is available 24/7 including holidays. You can also call this number prior to leaving your province of residence for pre-trip assistance.

When contacting GSC Travel Assistance, quote the group number and the GSC ID number on your card. If your emergency is one that does not require immediate urgent medical assistance, contact GSC Travel Assistance to open a case prior to seeking medical treatment.

For additional detail on your Out-of-Province coverage, please refer to your employee booklet.

If you are a BC resident and enrolled with the Medical Services Plan (MSP), you can register your family to receive your maximum financial assistance under Fair PharmaCare. Your family includes you, your spouse and any dependent children whose Medical Services Plan coverage is on the same contract as you or your spouse. Your extended health coverage (EHC) requires that you take advantage of other plans that are available to you, such as the Fair PharmaCare program. As a result, the EHC plan will only pay for eligible drugs up to your deductible and amounts that exceed the 70% PharmaCare co-payment. In other words, your EHC plan does not provide coverage for drug expenses that are eligible under the Fair PharmaCare program. After you reach a certain threshold of drug expenses, PBC will contact you to request proof that you have registered with the Fair PharmaCare program.

You can still register for PharmaCare. As part of the registration process, you will be asked for your family’s annual net income based on your previous year’s income tax returns. You will also be asked to provide authorization for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to send information from your tax return to Fair PharmaCare. You will be advised of your annual Fair PharmaCare deductible at time of registration, and will receive notice each year for the following year’s annual deductible.

If you do not register, you will default to the highest deductible level of $10,000 per family. You can contact PharmaCare at 1-800-387-4977 (8:00 AM to 8:00 PM weekdays, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM weekends). You can also register on-line at http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/pharmacare/.

Yes. If the Insured has abstained from the use of tobacco products for at least the past 12 consecutive months, he or she may apply for the preferred non-smoking rate by completing the Application for Optional Life Non-Smoker Rates Form

If an Optional Life or Optional Spouse Life insurance claim is filed and the smoking habits have been misrepresented, the claim will be denied. Any premiums which have been paid will be refunded.

If you have a question about how the plan works or how to adjust your coverage, contact Client Services at:

Suite 120-4401 Still Creek Drive
Burnaby, BC V5C 6G9
Phone: (604) 683-7353
Toll-free: 1-800-665-1077
Fax: (604) 299-2982
Email: hr@bccabenefits.ca

We have negotiated with the insurer for a competitive retiree plan and preferred rates due to the strength of our membership numbers. There are no broker fees included in the monthly rates and you do not need to complete a medical questionnaire to apply. There is also no age limit for any of the benefits.

If you are retiring, age 50+, covered by Provincial Health (MSP) and have been covered under a group employee benefits plan for at least 6 months, you qualify for this plan. You must apply within 60 days of the date on which your group benefits coverage was cancelled.

This plan includes health, prescription drug and optional dental benefits.

Travel coverage for medical emergencies that occur within Canada are included under this plan, but travel coverage outside of Canada is not included. You can choose to purchase separate travel coverage through Pacific Blue Cross or another insurer. If you do choose to enroll under this retiree benefit plan, you can then purchase travel insurance through Pacific Blue Cross with 10% savings as a plan member.

The cost will vary depending on who you choose to cover under the plan, your age and if you choose to include dental benefits.

This is an individual plan for retirees, so you would be responsible for the monthly rate payments.

Yes! You can choose to cover your spouse and/or eligible children under this plan. Keep in mind that the monthly rates are different for single, couple or family coverage.

No medical questionnaire is required to be completed in order to apply for this plan.

You can contact Pacific Blue Cross directly if you have any additional questions. If you’d like to apply for this plan, click here to download the application form.

*** Make sure to mention that you’re interested in the BCCA Retiree Plan when you contact Pacific Blue Cross. ***

Call: 604-419-2200 or 1-800-USE-BLUE (1-800-873-2583)
Email: Pacific Blue Cross
Visit: 4250 Canada Way
Burnaby, BC  V5G 4W6

You can submit claims to Pacific Blue Cross using their phone app, website, by mail, or in person.