You have new health benefits! Here’s how to use them.

As you hopefully already know, your 2022-2025 CCFA Bargaining Team negotiated Camosun Faculty a whole whack of new extended health benefits. These benefits are part of your total compensation package as Camosun employees, so make sure you take full advantage. Here’s how:

We have a pay-direct Drug Card!

Manulife has finally started the process of mailing members our new pay-direct drug card. Please make sure your contact info, especially your home address, is up-to-date with Manulife. (Log into your Manulife account and then click on “My Profile” –> “Edit my personal information” from the Manulife claims home page to check your address details.)

You can see full instructions on how to obtain your Drug Card electronically on the FAQ.

No per-visit maximums for professional services!

Before the latest contract, CCFA faculty members had “per-visit maximums” on professional services like massage therapy, physiotherapy, and acupuncture. That means the first five times we accessed those treatments, we could only claim a maximum of $20 per visit. Those per-visit maximums are now gone. You are eligible for nearly full coverage immediately.

Massage therapy and physiotherapy have unlimited coverage under our CCFA collective agreement. We are eligible for 95% coverage per visit until expenses reach $1000–then we are eligible for 100% coverage. So keep those muscles limber!

Here are your other professional services at a glance:

• Chiropractor/Athletic Therapist – $400 per calendar year combined (X-Rays not covered)
• Podiatrist/Chiropodist – $400 per calendar year
• Naturopath – $400 per calendar year
• Speech Therapist – $1,000 per calendar year
• Acupuncturist – $300 per calendar year

…but there is a deductible

Our Extended Health Plan has a $50 deductible which we need to pay before we can access any part of it. This has always been there, but most members typically did not notice it, since the fee was usually eaten up by the year’s first massage or physio visit. The deductible would have been taken off the top of the year’s first expense, but since we could only claim a maximum of $20, the fee felt mostly moot. Now you will see that $50 on your first bill of the calendar year: but don’t worry, it’s a one-time fee!

Psychological Services now $3000 per year

We doubled our eligible expenses for psychologists and clinical counsellors to $3000 per family per year. CCFA members can claim 90% of the cost of each visit. We also bargained for the Employer to cover all the premiums for this benefit. The deductible does not apply to this benefit so you won’t have to pay it here.

Health Care Spending Account ($400)

The Health Care Spending Account is now ready to access. You will see it on the Claims page on Manulife’s website.

If your claim will be fully covered by our Extended Health Plan (for example, a Counselling appointment that occurred well before your $3000 coverage is used up), select the first option: my Health or Dental Plan.

If your claim will be partially covered by our Extended Health Plan and you would like to “top up” your coverage with your HCSA (for example, eyeglasses that exceed the $650 allotted every two years), select the second option: my Health or Dental plan first, and any remaining balance from my Health Care Spending Account. (Note: if you have access to another extended health plan, like a spouse’s plan, you must make a claim through that plan before you are eligible to top up).

If your claim would not be covered by our Extended Health Plan but is eligible for the HCSA (for example, a Shingles vaccine–see above for guidelines on what is eligible), select the third option: my Health Care Spending Account only.

You can also top up previous claims directly from your list of claims on your Manulife Account home screen. Once a claim has been adjudicated, you will see a column with this icon on the right side of the screen beside your claim:

Clicking this icon will automatically claim the leftover amount with your HCSA (Note: if you have access to another extended health plan, like a spouse’s plan, you must make a claim through that plan before you are eligible to top up).

The HCSA is $400 per calendar year, and you can rollover any unused amount from the previous year (if these aren’t used by the end of the second year, they are forfeited). At time of writing, the College has not yet deposited the funds for our HCSA in Manulife’s accounts, and so the rollover has not yet appeared: but we are following up with the College to ensure it does!

As an Extended Health Benefit, the HCSA has an effective start date of September 1, 2023. That means any health services that would be covered by an HCSA that you paid for out-of-pocket are eligible to be covered. In most cases, you can file the claim as above on Manulife’s website. In some cases, you may need to call Manulife’s general support line at 1-800-268-6195 (8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, Mon. to Fri.) to have your claim adjusted.

For more information, including what services are eligible for the HCSA, see our FAQ.

You’re still wondering about the Lifestyle and Wellness Spending Account, aren’t you?

I’ve received more emails about this tiny fund than any other aspect of the Collective Agreement, I think, including our wage increase! But I’m excited about it too (I have some new hiking boots burning a hole in my pocket…).

We are also frustrated about how long it has taken the College to implement this modest fund. Manulife has all the information it needs and should roll it out in a week or so (we were quoted “mid-January”) The fund will be at least $250, possibly more depending on uptake. We promise we will announce it the minute it goes live (of course, as always, members on our Discord server are the first to hear about it–email ac.ytlucafnusomac@gniniagrab for an invite!).