Below is a letter from the National IAM Benefit Trust Fund.
Dear Mr. Wirth:
This responds to your letter to the National IAM Benefit Trust Fund (“Fund”) Board of Trustees dated February 12, 2018 in which you request that retirees who self-pay do not lose dental coverage when their employer that is a Contributing Employer subject to the Service Contract Act (“SCA Employers”) changes as of April 1, 2018, As you note in your letter, previously, self-pay retirees would lose their dental coverage with the Fund if their “Employer ceases to be a contributing Employer.”
The Trustees considered your request at a meeting of the Board of Trustees on March 14, 2018. Although your letter concerned a specific employer, more broadly, the Trustees evaluated the policy consideration related to the continued participation of self-pay retirees who were formerly employees of SCA Employers. I am pleased to let you know that the Trustees decided that such self-pay retirees should be permitted to maintain coverage with the Fund as long as the successor contractor remains as a Contributing Employer. The Trustees further determined that such retirees will be permitted to maintain coverage as the bargaining unit work they previously performed moves to successor service contractor, until there is no replacement successor SCA Employer.
I hope this answers your questions. Please let me know if you need anything further.
Sincerely,
Ryk Tierney, CEBS
IAMBTF Executive Director