The Benefits of Film plan includes coverage for life insurance, accidental death, critical illness, short and long term disability benefits, extended health, dental, member and family assistance program, substance abuse treatment and health care spending account. Check out the benefit summary for more information about how to become eligible for these benefits.
You can also apply for optional life insurance for you or your spouse. Application forms including the rates are available under the Forms menu.

You can access up to 10 free sessions for a variety of counselling/work life services under the Employee & Family Assistance Program (EFAP). The EFAP is available to all members of IATSE Local 891 and their dependents.
In addition to the above, if you qualify for hour bank benefits you get up $1400 per person, per calendar year for counselling services, please see your booklet online for further details.

Drug coverage is part of the coverage you get when you are eligible for hour bank benefits, however not all prescriptions drugs are covered.
The base Benefits of Film plan which covers about 5000 DINS follows the BC provincial Fair Pharmacare formulary. You can check with your doctor or your pharmacist to see if your medication is covered. These drugs are payable at 100%.
Under the base Benefits of Film plan some additional prescriptions are covered, but require special approval. Your doctor will need to complete a Special Authority Request form and submit it to BC Pharmacare for approval. When it has been approved, you can send this to benefitsoffilm@aga.ca to submit to Canada Life, or you can submit it directly to Canada Life by calling them at 1-855-729-1839. Once the approval is set up on Canada Life’s system you will be able to use your drug card to purchase the medication going forward.
As of May 1st 2022, another additional 11,000 drugs in addition to those covered under the base Benefits of Film plan are covered under the Supplementary Drug Plan (TELUS’s Complete Managed Formulary). These drugs are payable at 80%.If your drug gets paid at 80%, check with your pharmacist to see if it is eligible on the BC Fair Pharmacare as a special authority drug – if approved, you could get reimbursed at 100% if your Special Authority Request is approved.
You can check whether your drug it’s covered by accessing the Canada Life GroupNet website or app and using the DIN lookup tool. You can also check whether the drug is covered under the base or supplementary plan.

You can access up to 10 free sessions for a variety of counselling/work life services under the Employee & Family Assistance Program (EFAP). The EFAP is available to all members of IATSE Local 891 and their dependents.
In addition to the above, if you qualify for hour bank benefits you get up $1400 per person, per calendar year for counselling services, please see your booklet online for further details.

Your plan covers you for medical emergency situations with Global Medical Assistance (emergency travel), Medical referral travel in Canada and out of country care. Please refer to your booklet online for further details.
Your plan does not include trip cancellation or lost baggage coverage.

The health care spending account is deposited July 1st each year. You will receive an email confirming if you are eligible. If you have money in your health spending account you will be able to see this on Canada Life’s plan member GroupNet site when you login. When you log in go to coverages and balances and select the Health Solutions Plus plan under Policy 58197.

There are different policy numbers for different benefits

• for extended health & dental claims use policy 58197
• for health spending account claims use policy 58197
• for critical illness claims use policy CI50081101
• for D&A Rehab claims use policy 58200

IATSE Local 891 Employee Life & Health Trust.

You can download and save a digital card by signing into your mycanadalifeatwork account - Download or print a paper copy. Go to https://my.canadalife.com/sign-in and click on Info centre. If you are not able to access your mycanadalifeatwork account please contact AGA Benefit Solutions at benefitsoffilm@aga.ca or toll free at 1-800-218-7018.

You can submit receipts online through your GroupNet login or you can mail a paper claim form and your receipts to the address on form. Go to Forms/Extended Health and Dental @ www.benefitsoffilm.com

For extended health and dental claims you have 18 months from the date you incur (pay for) the expense to submit, however you can only submit online for 12 months from the date of expense. Healthcare Spending account claims must be submitted by 90 days from the end of the health spending account plan year. Your plan year is from July 1st each year to the following June 30th so claims must be submitted by September 28th for any expenses that you paid for up to June 30th of that year. Example

• if you have an expense from June 15th, 2021, it must be submitted by September 28, 2021
• if you have an expense from July 15th, 2021, you have until September 28th, 2022 to submit the claim

Contact the Union Hall for these forms 604-664-8910 or email: benefitsoffilm@iatse.com.

All of your claims payments include an explanation of benefits. You can view this information online through your groupnet account. The explanation of benefits will include a reason for why the claim was not paid or not paid in full. If you still have questions about your extended health, dental or health spending account claim, please contact Canada Life customer service at 1-855-729-1839.

Complete a Group Change Form (Extended Health & Dental). You can return this by email, fax or mail Email: benefitsoffilm@aga.ca Fax: 905-477-2249 Mail: 675 Cochrane Drive, Suite 301E, Markham (ON) L3R 0B8

A dependent must be a Canadian citizen and have health coverage with your province,
Children are eligible if they under 21 or any age if still attending school full time
Children who are disabled and financially dependent can be covered but must be approved by Canada Life. Go to Forms\Health & Dental Enrolment & Change Forms\Overage Dependent Form. Complete this form and return to AGA Benefit Solutions.
A spouse is eligible as of the date of marriage
A commonlaw spouse is eligible once you have been living together for 12 months but you must complete a commonlaw declaration form. Go to Forms\Enrolment & Change Forms\Commonlaw declaration forms

Notify the Union office or AGA Benefit Solutions by email.

You are automatically enrolled for basic life, employee and family assistance benefits and substance abuse treatment when you become a member.
Once 280 hours have been deposited to your hour bank you will be automatically added to the hour bank benefits – extended health, dental, critical illness, ad&d and disability benefits. You will get an email from AGA Benefit Solutions with a link to enrolment forms – use these form to add your dependents to your plan.

You can make this change online. Go to Member Login, select Dependent and then select Beneficiary and click Change. You can also go to forms, and print a beneficiary form, complete and sign it and return by email, fax or mail to AGA Benefit Solutions.

If you have active hour bank coverage and are not making full self payments, you may be eligible to apply for disability benefits. Contact the Union office to start the process.

Short term disability benefits are available for all active members who are eligible for hour bank benefits based on worked hours. Members not in hour bank coverage, or covered under the hour bank by full self payment are not eligible for disability benefits under the plan.
This plan won’t pay disability benefits if you are receiving WorkSafeBC benefits however, you may apply for disability benefits from this plan while WorkSafeBC processes your claims. Remember that you will be required to repay any STD benefits you have received to the Trust if your WorkSafeBC claim is approved for wage loss or vocational rehab benefits.
If you have applied for EI Sickness benefits, you can apply for short term disability benefits, however you must note that you are receiving EI Sickness benefits on your application and your short term disability benefits will not start until your EI Sickness benefits run out.
If you are unable to work as a result of a car accident, you may apply for short term disability benefits. Any amounts that you receive from the short term disability benefit may be used to reduce the wage loss benefits you receive from ICBC.
When you apply for short term disability benefits for a situation where a third party may be liable for payment, you will be required to complete a reimbursement agreement confirming your obligation to repay the Trust for any overpayments or wage loss payments you receive from a third party.
Refer to your benefit booklet for more information about the short term disability benefits.

If you are receiving Worksafe Wage Loss or Vocational Rehab benefits, ICBC wage loss or EI Sickness benefits, you can submit proof of these benefits to AGA Benefit Solutions, and you will get credits in your hour bank to maintain your coverage.
If you are receiving short or long term disability benefits under the plan, credits will automatically be deposited to your account.

The Benefits of Film plan does not pay any income benefits while you are on parental or maternity leave, but if you are self paying for your benefits at any point in your leave, you may be eligible for a reduced self pay rate. Send proof of your parental or maternity EI benefits to benefitsoffilm@aga.ca to get the reduced rate.

Critical Illness benefits cover specified conditions – check the booklet to see if your condition is listed. If it is, you can get the Critical Illness forms under Forms or contact AGA Benefit Solutions. There is a form for you to complete, and a form for your physician to complete.

There is no bereavement leave benefit.

The easiest way to pay your shortage is through the member portal. Go to the Member Login to access the self payment link.
You can also pay by the methods below
Credit Card By phone – call AGA Benefit Solutions at 1-800-218-7018 to pay your shortage by credit card over the phone
Bank payment Select “I.A.T.S.E. 891 Health Benefit Plan” as the payee and use your Local 891 Union ID# and PAY as the account number (e.g. ######PAY)
Cheque Make cheque payable to “IATSE Local 891 Employee Life and Health Trust” and send to AGA Benefit Solutions at the address below.

Hours are received at AGA Benefit Solutions usually around the end of the third week of each month for all pay periods with pay period ending date in the month prior. If you have worked hours in a pay period ending in the current month, you can contact the union office to confirm what has been received.

You can get a reduced shortage rate if you are on maternity or parental leave, receiving employment insurance or you are on the union medical leave list. Email confirmation of your status to benefitsoffilm@aga.ca.

Once your hour bank benefits terminate, you must accumulate 280 reported hours in your hour bank. Remember that hours are reported in the month following the month you worked, so if you worked in January, those hours will be reported in February and used for March coverage.

You will need to contact the local you are working with to confirm if they can transfer the hours to Local 891. You will also need to notify the Finance Department at IATSE Local 891.