Health Care Updates

Carpenters and Joiners Welfare Fund

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Summary of Material Modifications

TO: Participants and Beneficiaries of the Carpenters and Joiners Welfare Fund
FROM: The Board of Trustees of the Carpenters and Joiners Welfare Fund

The Board of Trustees (“Trustees”) has amended the Summary Plan Description and Plan Document (amended and restated January 1, 2017) as indicated below.

COVID-19 Coverage – Effective March 17, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.

The Trustees adopted Amendment No. 19 which amends the Plan to provide 100% coverage (no member cost share) for the cost of claims incurred on or before April 30, 2020 for COVID-19 diagnostic testing and diagnosis as well as the related office visit, urgent care visit, or emergency department visit during which the treating health care provider determined such diagnostic testing was medically necessary and appropriate according to the accepted guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and/or the respective state Department of Health.  

The Loss of Time benefits have also been amended to expand the definition of Sickness to include quarantine or self-quarantine of an Eligible Employee who is unable to work because his or her treating health care provider has provided a written statement that such quarantine is medically necessary or appropriate according to the accepted guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and/or the respective state Department of Health because the Eligible Employee has had exposure or suspected exposure to COVID‑19 or a member of the Eligible Employee’s household has been diagnosed with COVID-19 (“COVID-19 Sickness”). This provision is in effect for a COVID-19 Sickness beginning on or after March 9, 2020. 

Additionally, effective March 9, 2020 and continuing until the rescission of the Presidential Proclamation of a national emergency concerning the COVID-19 outbreak, payment of Weekly Disability Benefits will start the first day following a COVID-19 Sickness as defined in Section of 1.53 of the Plan Document. 

Increase in Weekly Disability Benefit Amount

The Weekly Disability Benefit amount was increased to $450 per week for weeks beginning on or after March 9, 2020.

Please update your Summary Plan Description and Plan Document booklet (dated January 1, 2017) to reflect these changes by inserting replacement pages 17, 17A, 20 and 73 into your booklet to replace existing pages. 

If you have any questions, please contact the Plan Administrator at 952-851-5788 or toll free at 844-468-5916.