Redesigned IPF and IHF Website Debuts

In early 2006, the Bricklayers & Trowel Trades International Pension Fund and the International Health Fund launched their newly renovated joint website – www.ipfihf.org. Streamlined and easy to navigate, the site offers more information plus new resources and features. One such feature, the Site Map, helps acquaint visitors with how and where topics are organized and located. The new Search function is another great tool for locating specific information.

The following are highlights of the site’s major sections and sub-sections:

Joint IPF and IHF Homepage

The new design offers quick access to news items and other popular features. Although these can also be accessed from sections deeper in the site, the “homepage advantage” helps visitors find what they need with fewer clicks:

• Current News & Issues – get the latest issue of IPF’s newsletter, Blueprint, and recent articles on benefits from the Journal;
• Traveling for Work offers three options – learn more about benefit reciprocity, print or download a report on the ERTS system, and for current ERTS’ users, go straight to the ERTS login page;
• Need a Form – print or download one or several IPF and/or IHF forms; and
• IPF FAQs and IHF FAQs –
  answers to your questions could be a click away.

Pension Fund (IPF)

• About IPF – information about the Fund’s historical and administration;
• Contact IPF – how to write, call, or email the Fund;
• IPF Forms can now be printed and/or downloaded, such as the Pension Application, Change of Beneficiary, Electronic Deposit, and the BAC Save Application;
• BAC SAVE – includes a Summary Plan Description that can be printed or downloaded, information on the Plan’s tax advantages for participants – and more;
• IPF FAQs – accessible from the homepage and the IPF section, this collection of common questions and answers covers subjects ranging from participation and pension credits, death benefits, work after retirement, and reciprocity, to name just a few; and
• Links to resources and other related sites.

Health Fund (IHF)

• About IHF and Contact IHF – similar to the IPF section, users can access the historical and administrative background on IHF, as well as contact information;
• IHF Forms – several forms, including Health & Welfare Enrollment, Insurance Change, and Commonlaw Marriage forms can be printed or downloaded;
• Summary of Eligibility – an overview of health care coverage benefits (contingent on the participation of a member’s Local in the Plan), and more than ten separate sections with specific Plan information relating to retirees, COBRA, Dental & Vision, and How to File a Claim, as well as access to PDFs of the Summary Plan Description and IHF Overview from any page in these sections;
• Medicare Part D and Sav-Rx Evaluation/Implementation – addresses recent changes to the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, followed by Sav-Rx’s offer to analyze and evaluate drug benefit options for undecided retirees free of charge, and, depending on their decision, the support that Sav-Rx can provide to ensure a smooth transition;
• IHF FAQs – answers questions about eligibility and the types of benefits offered; and
• Links to health care providers and other related labor sites.

Canada

• Canada Pension Fund and Health Fund – separate sections offer information about the Funds’ Boards of Trustees, contact information, along with forms, answers to frequently asked questions, and links, with additional Plan eligibility and schedule of benefits under the Health Fund; and
• Canadian News – excerpts from the “Canadian Corner” of IPF’s Blueprint and Canada-specific benefits news from the Journal.

ERTS

• A link to the Electronic Reciprocal Transfer System’s (ERTS) login page appears not only on the homepage, but on almost every page of the site. Once users are logged on, they’ll receive information to assist in the transfer of pension and health and welfare fund contributions to members’ home funds regardless of where they are working.

Questions or comments about IPF’s sections of the website should be directed to Plan Administrator David F. Stupar at dstupar@ipfihf.org
and those pertaining to IHF’s portions should be directed to Plan Administrator Anne Codd at acodd@ipfihf.org.