| Date: | February 2, 2016 |
| To: | Faculty and Librarians |
| From: | Steve Dyce, Director, Benefits & Pension, Division of Human Resources & Equity |
| Cc: | HR Divisional Offices |
| Re: | Benefit plan changes for the 2015-2016 plan year for Faculty & Librarians |
Recently-negotiated changes to your group health and dental plans are effective retroactive to July 1, 2015. These changes include:
Extended Health Care (EHC) Plan:
- Increased vision care from $350 to $400 every 24 months.
- Add separate coverage for eye exam up to $110 every 24 months.
- Complementary Health Services –
- Expand the existing chiropractic / physiotherapy / registered massage therapy paramedical services to include dietician services, osteopath, occupational therapy, and acupuncture; and,
- Increase the combined annual maximum from $700 to $950 per year
As a result of these changes, the full-time employee EHC Plan monthly premium will increase from $16.74 to $17.58 (for single coverage), and from $63.13 to $66.29 (for family coverage). These premium increases will be effective in your February 2016 pay, retroactive to January 1, 2016.
Dental Plan:
- Add coverage for dental implants under the existing annual major restorative maximum of 80% reimbursement to maximum of $2,500/ year.
As a result of these changes, the full-time employee Dental Plan monthly premium will increase from $15.16 to $15.46 (for single coverage), and from $35.46 to $36.17 (for family coverage). These premium increases will be effective in your February 2016 pay, retroactive to January 1, 2016.
Implementation of retroactive improvements:
During the month of February, Green Shield will be retroactively adjusting – where possible – any eligible claims submitted by members prior to February 1, 2016 that were partially paid because of the prior plan maximums so long as the claim payment was made directly to you and not the benefit provider.
If after the end of February you have not received reimbursement for a prior claim and you think it should be paid, please contact Green Shield directly to review the claim with them.
Effective immediately, any new claims incurred on or after July 1, 2015 that were not submitted because of the cap, or for the additional services now available under the combined annual maximum can be submitted to Green Shield.
To review information for your benefits, please visit https://people.utoronto.ca/ and go to your employee group benefits section (‘Current Faculty and Librarian’ tab) and click on the links.
If you have any questions, please contact benefits.help@utoronto.ca.
Green Shield Canada Plan Member Online services and direct deposit.
Now is a great time to enrol for Green Shield’s Plan Member Online services if you have not previously done so. Go to http://www.greenshield.ca and select ‘plan members’, and follow the registration process.
You will need to have your Green Shield ID card handy to provide your ID # and enter your name as it appears on your card.
Once enrolled, you can see your prior claims history, submit certain claims online, print a copy of your ID card, check for providers in your area, check coverage of drugs by DIN and also sign up for direct deposit of claims payments. Note that with direct deposit, Green Shield issues payment to your banking institution for deposit into your bank account at the same time as they produce your Explanation of Benefits (EOB) statement for the claim. Your banking institution may take up to 2 business days beyond the payment date on the EOB to deposit the funds in your account. If you still don’t see the funds in your account within five business days from the EOB payment date, you can contact Green Shield’s Customer Contact Centre and they will investigate for you.
New Maximum Pensionable Salary
The maximum pensionable salary under the Pension Plan has increased from $150,000 to:
- January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014 – $153,000
- January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015 – $156,500
- January 1, 2016 – December 31, 2016 – $161,000
Contributions on the new higher pensionable salary will only commence with the 2016 year, and will be implemented in your February pay, retro to January 1, 2016.
Online estimates using the above new maximum pensionable salaries will not be available until later this spring, but the 2016 Annual Pension Statement, released in December 2016, will reflect these new maximums if your salary is in excess of the old $150,000 maximum in any of the above years.