GRANDFATHERED HEALTH PLAN REMINDER
The Board of Trustees believes that the Northern Nevada Laborers Health & Welfare Trust Fund is a “grandfathered health plan” under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). As permitted by the ACA, a grandfathered health plan can preserve certain basic health coverage that was already in effect when that ACA was enacted. Being a grandfathered health plan means that your Plan is not required to include certain consumer protections of the ACA that apply to other plans (known as a Non-Grandfathered plan), for example, requiring the provision of preventive health services without any cost sharing. Grandfathered health plans must comply, however, with certain other consumer protections in the Act, such as the elimination of annual and lifetime limits on Plan’s essential health benefits. (For a definition of what constitutes as Essential Health Benefits, please visit www.healthcare.gov/glossary/essential-health-benefits.)
Questions regarding which protections apply and which protections do not apply to a grandfathered health plan and what might cause a plan to change from grandfathered health plan status can be directed to the Plan Office at (775) 826-7200. You may also contact the Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) at 1–866–444–3272 or www.dol.gov/ebsa/healthreform. This website has a table summarizing which protections do and do not apply to grandfathered health plans.