Notice About the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program
MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
In this issue 3
Wellness Champions Program Off to a Great Start
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Putting Technology at Your Fingertips
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Member Profile: Pamela Young Members Helping Members Live Healthier Lives
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7 Steps to a Healthy Heart
10 Learn How Good Habits Lead to a Healthy Heart 11 Prenatal Care Helps Pregnant Moms and Their Babies Stay Healthy 12 Jump-Start Your Exercise Routine with a 3-Week Commitment 14 Healthy Eating Starts with Healthy Food Shopping 15 Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig for 1199ers! 16 Talk to a Health Coach for One-on-One Support 17 If You Haven’t Filed Your Taxes Yet, You Can Still Get Help
Spring is a time of fresh beginnings, and many of you are taking the season to heart with your renewed commitment to living healthier lives. In this issue of For Your Benefit, you will read about the growing number of wellness activities at 1199SEIU worksites, many headed by Wellness Champions – members just like you who have volunteered to help spread the word about health and fitness.Whether you decide to sign on as a Wellness Champion yourself, join your co-workers for lunchtime walks or come up with your own exercise and nutrition plan, you can choose what works best for you and start taking control of your health now. For one member, Pamela Young, forming a walking group with three of her co-workers at Good Samaritan Lutheran Healthcare Center and joining Weight Watchers helped her lose nearly 75 pounds and stop taking cholesterol and diabetes medications.You can read all of their success stories on pages 6 and 7. Of course, your Benefit Fund will be with you every step of the way no matter which path you take. In this issue, you will read about tips, tools, workshops and more to make healthy changes in your life.You will also learn how our prenatal workshops can help members have a healthy pregnancy and give babies a healthy head-start. We keep you up to date on how we are using technology to keep you informed about your benefits, including using “My Account,” visiting our new Facebook page or reading the new online edition of For Your Benefit that allows you to turn pages onscreen as well as view past editions of the magazine. And we remind you that you still have time to take advantage of the 1199SEIU Tax Assistance Program to make sure you get as big a refund as possible. As always, we hope you find the information in your magazine helpful and take advantage of everything your Benefit Fund offers. If you have any questions about your benefits, please do not hesitate to call us at (646) 473-9200.We are here to serve you. Sincerely,
18 Request a Free Pension Estimate Once a Year
Mitra Behroozi Executive Director 1199SEIU Benefit and Pension Funds
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You are a plan participant, or are being offered the opportunity to enroll as a plan participant, in an employment-based health plan that is certified for participation in the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program is a federal program that was established under the Affordable Care Act. Under the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, the federal government reimburses a plan sponsor of an employment-based health plan for some of the costs of healthcare benefits paid on behalf of, or by, early retirees and certain family members of early retirees participating in the employment-based plan. By law, the program expires on January 1, 2014. Under the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, your plan sponsor may choose to use any reimbursements it receives from this program to reduce or offset increases in plan participants’ premium contributions, co-payments, deductibles, co-insurance or other out-of-pocket costs. If the plan sponsor chooses to use the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program reimbursements in this way, you, as a plan participant, may experience changes that may be advantageous to you in your health plan coverage terms and conditions, for so long as the reimbursements under this program are available and this plan sponsor chooses to use the reimbursements for this purpose. A plan sponsor may also use the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program reimbursements to reduce or offset increases in its own costs for maintaining your health benefits coverage, which may increase the likelihood that it will continue to offer health benefits coverage to its retirees and employees and their families.
The National Benefit Fund believes it is a “grandfathered health plan” under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which means that this plan can preserve certain basic health coverage that was already in effect when that law was enacted, and may not include certain new consumer protections that apply to other plans. However, grandfathered health plans must comply with certain other consumer protections in the Act, for example, the elimination of lifetime limits on benefits. Questions regarding the Fund's status as a grandfathered health plan and which protections apply can be directed to the Fund at (646) 473-9200. You may also contact the Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, at (866) 444-3272 or www.dol.gov/ebsa/healthreform. This website has a table summarizing which protections do and do not apply to grandfathered health plans.
Aviso Sobre el Programa de Reaseguro para Jubilación Anticipada Usted es un participante del plan, o se le está ofreciendo la oportunidad de inscribirse como un participante del plan, en un plan de salud basado en el empleo que está certificado por su participación en el Programa de reaseguro para jubilación anticipada. El Programa de reaseguro para jubilación anticipada es un programa federal que fue establecido bajo la Ley de cuidado de bajo costo. Bajo el Programa de reaseguro para jubilación anticipada, el gobierno federal reembolsa al patrocinador del plan, de un plan de salud basado en el empleo por algunos de los costos de beneficios de atención de la salud pagados a nombre de, o por, los que se jubilan anticipadamente y por ciertos miembros de la familia de los que se jubilan anticipadamente que participan en un plan basado en el empleo. Por ley, el programa vence el 1 de enero de 2014. Bajo el Programa de reaseguro para jubilación anticipada, su patrocinador del plan puede elegir utilizar cualquier reembolso que reciba de este programa para reducir o compensar los aumentos en las contribuciones a la prima, copagos, deducibles, coseguro u otros costos a su cargo del participante del plan. Si el patrocinador del plan elige utilizar de esta forma los reembolsos del Programa de reaseguro para jubilación anticipada, usted, como un participante del plan, puede experimentar cambios que pueden ser ventajosos para usted en los términos y condiciones de cobertura de su plan de salud, durante tanto tiempo como estén disponibles los reembolsos bajo este programa y este patrocinador del plan elija utilizar los reembolsos para este fin. Un patrocinador del plan también puede utilizar los reembolsos del Programa de reaseguro de jubilación anticipada para reducir o compensar los aumentos de sus propios costos por mantener la cobertura de sus beneficios de salud, lo que puede aumentar la probabilidad de que continuará ofreciendo la cobertura de los beneficios de salud a sus jubilados y empleados, y a sus familias.
El Fondo nacional de Beneficios cree que tiene consideración de "plan de salud de derechos adquiridos" en virtud de la Ley de Medidas de Protección del Paciente y Cuidado de Bajo Costo, lo que significa que este plan puede preservar algunas características de la cobertura de salud básica que estaba en vigencia cuando se promulgó la ley, y puede no incluir algunas nuevas protecciones al cliente que se aplican a otros planes. Sin embargo, bajo la Ley los planes de salud de derechos adquiridos deben cumplir con otras protecciones determinadas para el consumidor, por ejemplo, la eliminación de los límites de por vida de los beneficios. Las preguntas relativas al estatus del Fondo como plan de salud de derechos adquiridos y qué protecciones corresponden pueden dirigirse al Fondo llamando al (646) 473-9200. También puede comunicarse con la Administración para la Seguridad de los Beneficios del Empleado del Departamento de Trabajo de los EE. UU. llamando al (866) 444-444-3272 o www.dol.gov/ebsa/healthreform. Este sitio web tiene una tabla que resume las protecciones que se aplican y no se aplican a los planes de salud de derechos adquiridos.
FOR YOUR BENEFIT
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