Caring for Your Physical Health
Long-term disability insurance takes up where the short-term left off and may cover you anywhere from a few years to your entire life time. I recommend seeking a long-term policy that pays. Any short- or long-term disability benefit provided to an employee is separate from an employer’s obligations under the federal FMLA and other state leave laws. An employee who is eligible for STD benefits while on federal FMLA leave does not receive any extra leave benefits.
Physical health is essential to overall wellness. We encourage employees to adopt healthy habits and behaviors that will enhance the enjoyment and quality of life. We offer employees a competitive benefits plan with incentives, healthy eating seminars, and corporate discounts on bike shares and weight-loss programs as well as free onsite fitness centers. Health management benefits are also extended to employee dependents.
Health, Dental and Vision Plans
BCBSA offers a variety of medical plans to meet our employees' needs and budgets. These include dental and vision plans, as well as a prescription drug program.
Ensuring Your Financial Health
Making good financial decisions is a key to success and stability. That's why we offer our employees a range of financial wellness programs, including online resources, discounted financial planning and financial education workshops.
Disability Insurance
Life is unpredictable. BCBSA offers the following disability insurance options to help our employees protect their financial well-being in case of an unexpected illness or injury:
- Short-term disability
- Long-term disability
- May purchase additional long-term disability coverage amounts
Life Insurance
BCBSA offers a variety of medical plans to meet our employees' needs and budgets. These include dental and vision plans, as well as a prescription drug program.
Who will protect and support your family if you are gone? Life insurance provides an answer to that question. We offer our employees the following options for life insurance coverage*:
- Basic term life at no cost
- Buy-up options available
- Matching amount of Accidental Death and Dismemberment
- Option to purchase supplemental group universal life insurance for self and/or dependent
* Employee may need to satisfy evidence of insurability.
Business Travel Insurance
Our company-paid program provides life insurance (equal to 2x employee salary) if an employee should pass away while traveling on BCBSA business.
Maintaining General Well-Being
Having time for family, friends and activities beyond work is an important component of a rich and fulfilling life. At BCBSA, we support the social and emotional lives of our employees with the following programs.
Balancing Work and Life
We provide paid time away from the office to relax and recharge, and support our employees who welcome a new child into their family or have military commitments.
- Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Paid Holidays
- Military Leave
- Maternity/Paternity Benefit
Events and Activities
BCBSA helps support the social and emotional well-being of employees by providing opportunities to connect with peers in the workplace through corporate events and activities.
Volunteer Hours
Connecting with your community is a great way to establish social ties and enrich your life. We offer 15 volunteer hours per year for full- and part-time employees to engage in community involvement at the organization of your choice.
Transit and Parking Reimbursement Programs
To help our employees save on commuting costs, we offer the option of purchasing mass transit cards and parking passes on a pre-tax basis, through payroll deduction
Employee Assistance Program
When our employees need support in dealing with family, personal or workplace issues, our National Employee Assistance program provides confidential counseling, assessments and referrals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This program is also available to eligible dependents.
Fetch Pet Care
Your pet is a part of your life. Make sure they're taken care of when you're away on business, vacation, or even just during the day. This discount program offers dog walking and boarding services.
Recognizing Your Contribution
Our employees make significant contributions to our company, through their dedication to service and our company mission. To recognize employees who have gone above and beyond, we offer the following awards and recognition programs at BCBSA.
Richard L. Woolworth Customer Service Award Program
The Richard L. Woolworth Customer Service Award recognizes individual employees who have made a significant contribution to BCBSA’s success through demonstrated excellence in customer service and customer satisfaction to external customers and/or fellow BCBSA employees throughout the year.
The President’s Employee Recognition Program
The President’s Employee Recognition Award Program recognizes employees for significant performance and contributions that go above and beyond their annual goals and job responsibilities.
President’s Team Award Program
The President’s Team Award allows BCBSA leadership the opportunity to recognize the exceptional collaborative work effort of a cross-functional team. The team awards are in addition to the individual awards that are given out in each division and represent a substantial increased investment to reward exemplary teamwork across divisions.
Values Recognition Program
The Values Recognition program recognizes and rewards behaviors in our colleagues that mirror BCBSA's corporate values of commitment, integrity, collaboration, leadership and innovation, creating and maintaining a work environment that is conducive to our personal growth and development and allowing us to contribute to the organization to our greatest capability.
Supporting Your Personal and Professional Development
BCBSA is committed to creating an environment that enhances the skills and knowledge of employees and contributes to professional growth, career satisfaction, increased productivity, an engaging work environment and improved business results. We offer our employees personal and professional development opportunities at all stages of their careers.
Employee development opportunities include:
- Virtual and classroom learning
- Tuition reimbursement
- Mentoring
- External development
In order to be considered for an EI premium reduction, your short-term disability plan must meet certain requirements.
The following pages describe the requirements that apply to all short-term disability plans, as well as specific requirements that are unique to weekly indemnity plans and to cumulative paid sick leave plans.
A. Requirements that apply to all short-term disability plans
1. Employees must be eligible to claim benefits under the plan within three months
A new employee who belongs to a group of employees covered by the plan must be eligible to claim benefits on the first day of the month following the completion of three months of continuous employment.
Example: A new employee hired May 6, 2021, is entitled to claim benefits starting September 1, 2021.
Some plans are based on an 'hour bank principle,' where employees bank hours while working for a number of employers. In this case, a union hiring hall usually administers the employees' pay and benefits. These employees must become eligible to claim benefits on the first day of the month following the day the employee has accumulated 400 hours of active employment.
2. The waiting period for payment of benefits cannot be more than 7 consecutive days
Benefits under the short-term disability plan must be paid no later than the 8th day following the start of the employee's disability.
3. Benefits paid must be at least equal to the amount of benefits an employee would receive from the EI program
The weekly amount of benefits payable to employees under the plan must be at least equal to or exceed the amount of EI benefits that the EI program would pay.
For example, the basic EI benefit rate is 55% of a claimant's average insurable earnings, up to a yearly maximum insurable amount of $56,300 in 2021. This means that claimants can receive a maximum payment of $595 in EI benefits per week. Therefore, for 2021, the short-term disability plan must provide at least 55% of an employee's normal weekly insurable earnings, to a maximum of at least $595.
4. The plan must be the first payer
The plan cannot allow an employee to claim EI benefits as part of its payment structure (that is, benefits under the plan cannot be integrated or coordinated with benefits that are paid under the Employment Insurance Act).
5. The plan must provide 24-hour coverage
The employees must be covered whether they are at work or not, even if they are injured while working at a second job. The plan must protect employees in both 'occupational' and 'non-occupational' environments, except in situations described in Item 6 below.
6. The plan can have certain limitations to the payment of benefits
A plan may contain some limitations to the payment of benefits that will not prevent the employer from qualifying for an EI premium reduction.
It is acceptable that benefits are not paid to an employee:
- who is not under the care of a licensed physician
- whose illness or injury is covered by workers' compensation, the Canada Pension Plan, or the Quebec Pension Plan
- whose illness or injury is intentionally self-inflicted
- whose illness or injury results from service in the armed forces
- whose illness or injury results from war or participation in a riot or a disturbance of the public order
- whose illness or injury occurs while on leave of absence or paid vacation
- who is receiving maternity, parental, compassionate care or family caregiver benefits under the Employment Insurance Act
- who is ill or injured as a result of committing a criminal offence
- who is engaged in employment for wage or profit while receiving disability benefits
- who is ill or injured during a strike or lockout at the place of employment (if the right to benefits is reinstated on the employee's return to active employment)
- who is serving a prison sentence
- who is not entitled to EI income benefits payable because he or she is outside Canada
- whose illness results from the use of drugs or alcohol and who is not receiving continuing treatment for the use of these substances
- whose illness results from an illness or injury from a motor vehicle accident and who receives benefits under a provincial motor vehicle insurance plan that does not take EI benefits payable into account when paying their benefits
- who receives a retirement pension from the same employer
- who has plastic surgery solely for cosmetic purposes, except where attributable to illness or injury or
- who, in the case of a recurring disability, is receiving benefits according to a reinstatement provision of a group long-term disability plan (as long as the reinstatement period does not exceed six months)
B. Requirements specific to weekly indemnity plans
In addition to the requirements explained in Part A above, weekly indemnity plans must also meet the following requirements:
1. Benefit duration
Weekly indemnity plans must pay benefits until the earliest of the following:
- the payment of at least 15 weeks of benefits
- the end of the period of incapacity due to illness or injury
- the date the employee retires or
- the date of separation from employment for any reason other than illness or injury, if the notice of separation was given prior to the beginning of the illness or injury
Special weekly indemnity plans (for provincial/territorial or para-public employers) must pay benefits until the earliest of the following:
- the payment of at least 52 weeks of benefits
- the end of the period of incapacity due to illness or injury
- the date the employee retires or
- the date of separation from employment for any reason other than illness or injury, if the notice of separation was given prior to the beginning of the illness or injury
2. Reinstatement of benefits following the end of a disability
Weekly indemnity plans must provide reinstatement of full benefits to an employee within a specified period of time for new and recurring disabilities - that is, at least 15 weeks of benefits must be again available to an employee who returns to work following the end of an illness or injury.
The requirements for reinstatement are as follows:
- If the subsequent disability is new, full benefits must be reinstated no later than one month after the employee returns to work
- If the subsequent disability is a recurrence of an earlier one, full benefits must be reinstated no later than three months after the employee returns to work
For a plan based on an hour-bank principle, the requirements are as follows:
- If the subsequent disability is new, full benefits must be reinstated when the employee accumulates no more than 150 hours of active employment
- If the subsequent disability is a recurrence of an earlier one, full benefits must be reinstated when the employee accumulates no more than 400 hours of active employment
Special weekly indemnity plans (for provincial/territorial or para-public employers) must provide for the reinstatement of a full 52 weeks of benefits to an employee no later than one month after the employee returns to work for both new and recurring disabilities.
C. Requirements specific to cumulative paid sick leave plans
In addition to the requirements explained in Part A, cumulative paid sick leave plans must also meet the following requirements:
1. Accumulation of sick leave credits
Paid sick leave plans must provide one or more days of paid sick leave per month of continuous employment and allow for a minimum accumulation of 75 days. The plan may also allow for the use of sick leave credits while remaining at home because of pregnancy, to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or to provide care or support to a gravely ill family member, to a critically ill adult or to a critically ill child.
Sick leave credits that are in excess of this minimum 75-day requirement may be used for other reasons (for example, taking a family member to a medical appointment). This is acceptable as long as at least one day per month (12 days per year) is maintained to be used only in cases of an employee's illness or injury and, if the plan allows it, while the person remains at home because of pregnancy, to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or to provide care or support to a gravely ill family member, to a critically ill adult or to a critically ill child.
Enhanced paid sick leave plans must provide one and two-thirds days or more of paid sick leave per month of continuous employment and allow for a minimum accumulation of 125 days. The plan may also allow for the use of sick leave credits while remaining at home because of pregnancy, to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or to provide care or support to a gravely ill family member, to a critically ill adult or to a critically ill child.
Sick leave credits that are in excess of this minimum 125-day requirement may be used for other reasons (for example, taking a family member to a medical appointment). This is acceptable as long as at least 20 days per year are maintained to be used only in cases of an employee's own illness or injury and, if the plan allows it, while remaining at home because of pregnancy, to care for a newborn or newly-adopted child, or to provide care or support to a gravely ill family member, to a critically ill adult or to a critically ill child.
Both paid sick leave and enhanced paid sick leave plans may allow days to be prorated based on the number of hours an employee has worked in a particular month.
When employers first apply for an EI premium reduction, their sick leave plan must have allowed for a possible accumulation of 72 days of paid sick leave credits (for a paid sick leave plan) or 120 days of paid sick leave credits (for an enhanced paid sick leave plan) in the six years preceding the date of application or since the plan was put in place, whichever is the shorter period. When the amount has not been achieved on the date of the application for the premium reduction, employers will be required to provide additional credits.
2. Benefit duration
The plan must pay benefits until the earliest of:
- the payment of 75 days of sick leave for a paid sick leave plan or 125 days of sick leave for an enhance paid sick leave plan
- the end of the period of incapacity due to illness or injury
- the exhaustion of all accumulated paid sick leave
- the date the employee retires or
- the date of separation from employment for any reason other than illness or injury, if the notice of separation was given prior to the beginning of the illness or injury
3. Deferral of sick leave
Short Term Disability Application Form
For temporary employees or new employees who are still subject to a probationary period, the employer may defer the use of paid sick leave credits for a period of no longer than 12 months, beginning on the day the employee started employment or joined the plan.