NECA-IBEW WELFARE TRUST FUND NEWSLETTER

VOL. 21, No.2	DECATUR, ILLINOIS	June 2005

Military Service and Your Coverage

Your health care coverage, and that of you dependents, can continue if you are called into the uniformed services of the United States (active duty or inactive duty training). If your military service is for:

When introduced in 1994, USERRA stated that coverage could continue for up to 18 months. After a recent amendment to this law, the maximum time that coverage can continue increased to 24 months. However, it is important to note that under our Plan, coverage may continue for up to 36 months by electing COBRA Continuation Coverage for yourself and/or your eligible dependents.

If you elect to continue coverage, at your own expense, coverage may end earlier than these maximum periods if:

• The required payments for coverage are not made within 30 days of the due date;
• The Fund no longer provides any group health benefits; or
• You reinstate your coverage under the Plan.

When military service ends, you may be eligible to apply for reemployment with your former employer. Under USERRA, you have the right to elect reinstatement in any existing health coverage provided by the Fund through your employer if you apply within the USERRA required periods. This would allow you to reinstate your coverage under the Fund without meeting the Plan’s initial eligibility requirements. To protect your USERRA rights to reemployment, you must apply for reemployment within the USERRA required periods.

If you are called to serve our country, contact the Fund Office as soon as possible. The Fund Office will help you through the process by explaining how you can continue coverage for yourself and/or your dependents and what you need to do to be eligible for reemployment under USERRA. For more information, active participants can refer to page 14 of the 2003 Edition of your Summary Plan Description (SPD).

COBRA Continuation Coverage

In certain situations when your coverage under the Plan would otherwise end, you may be eligible to continue coverage for up to 36 months by electing COBRA Continuation Coverage. COBRA Continuation Coverage under the Plan includes:

• Medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision benefits for you and your dependents; and
• Death and accidental death and dismemberment benefits for you (weekly disability benefits are not available).

If you are eligible and elect COBRA Continuation Coverage, you must make monthly self-payments. Each year the Trustees review the cost of providing this coverage and determine the monthly self-payment amount. Effective June 1, 2005, the monthly self-payment amount for COBRA Continuation Coverage will be $604.00

If you are currently making self-payments for COBRA Continuation Coverage that began before June 1, 2004, your rates may be different. Contact the Welfare Fund Administrative Office for rates effective June 1, 2004.

For more information about COBRA Continuation Coverage, active participants can refer to pages 23-24 of the 2003 Edition of your Summary Plan Description (SPD).

Improved Retiree Benefits Eligibility

The NECA-IBEW Welfare Trust Fund is pleased to offer Retiree Benefits. As health care costs continue to rise, this coverage can be very beneficial in your retirement years. To ensure that these benefits are available to as many of our participants as possible, the Trustees are pleased to announce some changes to the Plan’s eligibility requirements for Retiree Benefits. These changes may extend coverage to some participants who would not otherwise have been eligible.

The following information highlights the eligibility requirements for Retiree Benefits as of June 1, 2005. Specific changes are italicized. To be eligible for Retiree Benefits, you must:

1. Apply for Retiree Benefits. You must submit a written application to the Welfare Fund Administrative Office within 90 days of:

• The last day you work;
• The date of the award letter as it appears on the award letter;
• The date of your Social Security Disability Award letter; or
• The expiration of your accumulated banked hours.

1. Be as least age 55 or totally disabled, as defined by the Plan;
2. Submit proof of retirement acceptable to the Board of Trustees. Proof of retirement means that you are eligible or have been awarded a retirement or disability pension from:

• The National Electrical Benefit Fund;
• Any other Pension Fund in which Union Trustees are selected by one or more Local Unions affiliated with the IBEW; or
• The Social Security Administration (entitlement to a Social Security Disability Award is considered a form of retirement and your Social Security entitlement date will be your retirement date).

Effective June 1, 2004, if you continue to work past your Social Security full retirement age and are receiving Social Security Benefits, you may provide other proof of retirement other than Social Security benefits. You must provide such other proof within 90 days of the award of a pension benefit.

1. Be eligible for benefits under the NECA-IBEW Welfare Trust Fund during the month in which you retire or in the month immediately before you retire.
2. Have been eligible for benefits under the NECA-IBEW Welfare Trust Fund (or working toward eligibility reinstatement at the rate of at least 80 hours per month) for 45 of the last 60 months immediately before:

• The Welfare Fund Administrative Office receives your retirement application; or
• For disability retirements, your entitlement to a Social Security Disability Award.

Effective June 1, 2005, the 60-month period may be extended by up to 30 months (to a maximum of 90 months). This period may be extended by one month for every month that no hours were reported on your behalf but during which you were seeking employment with a participating local union. Your local union must verify, in writing, that you were seeking employment.

This change may help you to meet the 45-month eligibility rule. For example, Paul only had 40 months of eligibility in the last 60 months before retiring. However, Paul’s local union verified, in writing, that he was unemployed and seeking employment for six of those last 60 months. In this instance, the Fund will look at Paul’s last 66 months before retiring (adding one month for each month he was seeking employment). Since Paul was eligible for coverage for 46 of the last 66 months before retiring, Paul will meet this retiree eligibility requirement.

If you retire from a merged Fund and there is not sufficient time for you to accumulate the required 45 of the last 60 months of eligibility under the NECA-IBEW Welfare Trust Fund, you may be eligible for Retiree Benefits if:

• The Trustees of the merged Fund verify that you were eligible under that Fund for at least 45 of the last 60 months before the effective date of your retirement; or
• You were eligible under the NECA-IBEW Welfare Trust Fund and the merged Fund for a combined total of at least 45 of the last 60 months before the effective date of your retirement.

If you retire from work under the Fund and your active benefits end, you may be eligible to elect COBRA Continuation Coverage or Retiree Benefits for yourself and your eligible dependents. Please note that if you elect COBRA Continuation Coverage, you will lose any future right to Retiree Benefits. If you elect Retiree benefits, you will lose any future right to COBRA Continuation Coverage. However, under certain circumstances, your spouse or dependent children may be eligible to elect COBRA Continuation Coverage.

If you elect Retiree Benefits and you, or one of your dependents, are eligible for Medicare, your Retiree Benefits will be coordinated with Medicare, regardless of whether or not you are enrolled for Medicare. For more information about Retiree Benefits, contact the Welfare Fund Administrative Office.

Improved Communications Coming Your Way

The Trustees continually look for ways to improve our communications with you. Over the next several months, you will see some improvements in the way we communicate. For example, the Fund is in the process of reviewing and improving our Web site and our Explanation of Benefits (EOB) forms to make them easier to understand and use as a reference.

You will be hearing more about these improvements in the near future.

This newsletter contains only highlights of certain features of the NECA-IBEW Welfare Trust Fund. Full details are contained in the documents that establish the Plan provisions. If there is a discrepancy between the wording here and the documents that establish the Plan, the document language will govern. The Trustees reserve the right to amend, modify, or terminate the Plan at any time.