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7 Responses to “PSHCP Bulletin Number 21 now available online”

1. P.A. Reed Says:
   August 19th, 2008 at 8:12 pm

   The “convenience fee” proposed, or rather to be instituted (amount not yet decided) for pay direct PSHCP cards in 2009 came as quite a shock. It seems to me that no convenience fee is attached to our PDSP dental plan, which is pay direct, unless otherwise directed by the plan member.

   I first thought the fee was being levied by Sun Life. My reaction was that they were (double dipping) saving on both machine readable information provided (significant saving) from the provider e.g. – pharmacy, as well as this convenience fee.

   After some digging and a discussion with the PSHCP administration authority, I learned this convenience fee, being negotiated between union and government, is one that the government wants to offset its extra costs. These include more people claiming (instead of losing or forgetting the bills at home) and a basic shift in claiming procedure to individual electronic item claims (higher admin costs) with higher frequency instead of members batching bills at home and sending them in every month or so.

   I have drawn several conclusions from this information I gained.

   First, the Employer, who words these bulletins, did not clarify who was charging this convenience fee and why. For pensioners, we needed more information so as not to draw the wrong conclusions. We should also be access to how Sun Life bills the government currently and what constitutes a transaction under the current paper (batch) system as well as what savings to the employer this entails over the pay direct system. The Employer will benefit from the new electronic timely manner in which the data is captured for faster input into administrative management as well as health surveys. Sun Life will benefit significantly as more claims will already be in machine readable format and take fewer expensive human resources to convert the data.

   If the argument from government is that its costs will rise over the paper method, then the pay direct electronic method has not been properly designed.

   Finally, both electronic pay direct as well as the historical paper based claim reimbursement methods will be operating in 2009. If we were all to choose to continue for a time with the paper based reimbursement method which does not include a convenience fee, it could well be an incentive to government and Sun Life to find a way to absorb the pay direct fee.

   Any more light that can be shed on this topic is welcomed.

2. D Estey Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 1:13 am

   Interesting read. I have always wondered why PSHCP is not online and taking advantage of today’s technology. My wife’s company plan is through SunLife and online. We do not pay a convience fee for her plan.

   Maybe Blue Cross can administer our plan better? Anyway, it’s about time they modernized the PSHCP.

3. K J Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 10:51 am

   A convenience fee it figures! Theres always something! Why should we be paying for something that may be forced upon us? I am quite happy submitting my claims on paper without direct deposit.

   As far as I am concerned “you” whoever you are can take your 20%, but thats it. The 80% minus any convenience fee is my own and you have to send it to me, so mail it. Put a stamp on the envelope and absorb the costs.

   It seems the only convenience we would be supporting is yours in order for you to save the money of mailing out the claim cheques and for you to save by laying off people and unless its demanded of me, a requirement that is, I want things to stay the same.

   thank you.

4. J.Schneider Says:
   October 13th, 2008 at 11:37 am

   Both my wife and I have Sunlife administering our Dental and Medical plans. One Sunlife office in Toronto the other in Ottawa.

   My wife is employed by the York Regional Police. She has a paydirect card with no convenience fees. Any charges incurred for medical or dental are reimbursed directly to our bank account. No paper, stamps, lost mail, delays in payment.

   It is strange that a more efficient method of payment and reimbursement would require additional “convenience fees”.

   The idea that efficiency (more claims) would increase the government portion of payment and a “convenience fee” would help to offset this cost concerns me. Wouldn’t a more accurate picture of what the medical and dental costs actually are, be helpful to the government in determining overall costing?

5. R MARCUM Says:
   October 23rd, 2008 at 6:57 pm

   LONG FELT THIS SHOULD BE HANDLED BY BLUE CROSS.

6. E.A.Anderson Says:
   November 6th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

   Is this proposed “convenience fee” to be levied on each claim or is it a single charge on issue of the electronic card? In any case, while the new system will be an improvement in payment and time, the system will surely offer lower cost overheads to pharmacies, Sun-Life and the government ; a benefit to each agency in administration , mailing and data-bank systems. Why should pensioners subsidise the system ? The proposal is not only unfair but immoral in concept. Let us all oppose it until the idea of charging is dropped completely.

7. James Says:
   January 27th, 2009 at 11:35 pm

   Why would anyone want to pay to get only 20% charged to an awards/mileage credit card for services/products when one can accrue 100% of the awards/mileage from a credit card purchase and then apply to get 80% in cash back? Sure, the wait-time and the manual mail-in makes things slower, but for those who are paying large $$ for medications and collect ie. credit card Aeroplan/whatever points, that extra 80% in awards is worth the hassle.

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