NBA Supplemental Mental Health Benefit

• All active, dues-paying members covered by the NBA Provincial Collective Agreement are eligible to enrol in the plan.
• Dependents, including a spouse, child or dependent post-secondary student, are not eligible to receive this benefit.

• To receive this benefit, members are required to enrol using our online NBA SMHB enrolment form available on the BCNU Member Portal.
• BCNU must collect member's personal information and submit to PBC on member's behalf.
• Initial enrolment is not managed by PBC.
• Questions about the enrolment form? Email membership@bcnu.org.

Please allow 10 – 15 business days from the date you submitted your NBA SMHB enrolment form for PBC to send you a ‘welcome’ email, confirming your enrolment to the fund, and next steps.

BCNU is the plan administrator, in partnership with Pacific Blue Cross as the service provider.

No, there is no deadline to enrol in the plan. However, the earlier you enrol, the earlier you can submit receipts for reimbursement. 

Enrolling in the Supplemental Mental Health Benefit (SMHB) by Nov. 15, 2024, also allows Pacific Blue Cross (PBC) to manually link your SMHB enrollment to your existing PBC account, making it easier to access benefits and submit claims. To ensure a successful link, please make sure that the personal information used when you enrol in SMHB is the same as your existing PBC member account. 

After November 15, PBC will no longer provide manual linking. If your accounts can’t be matched automatically, PBC will create a new login for you, which will mean managing a separate account and taking extra steps for claims submissions. We encourage members to enrol by November 15, 2024, to avoid these additional steps and streamline access to their benefits. 

BCNU requested that health employers confidentially share member records of all nurses enrolled under their policy to this new one, which would’ve made for a relatively seamless process to attach this new health benefit to our existing health care benefit. They refused. By entering your information exactly as it appears in your current PBC account profile, the PBC team will be more likely to merge the two plans so that you can toggle between the two policies – no need to log in to a separate benefit plan.

Linking your records will allow you to have a single Member Profile account and allow the system to automatically coordinate claim payments between all your Pacific Blue Cross plans, including any coverage under a partner’s plan. For example, if your enrolment records are linked and you submitted a claim for a psychology visit, the system will automatically recognize your coverage under your employer’s Extended Health plan, your partner’s plan with PBC, and the Supplemental Mental Health Benefit, processing the claim under each policy without requiring you to submit three separate claims.

• Services of a registered psychologist, social worker, and registered clinical counsellor.
• Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT).

• BCNU has established a benefit plan that is superior to the current NBA extended health benefits.
• The NBA SMHB will reimburse 20 percent more than the allowable per visit limit that is currently provided by the employer plan. Here is a simplified example for registered counseling:
  • Under the employer benefit, the limit is $170.00 per visit, of which 80 percent is paid by PBC.
  • Under the NBA SMHB, the limit is $170.00 x 20 percent = $204.00 per visit.
• If your provider charges more than the allowable amount covered under the NBA SMHB, you will be responsible for paying the difference.

• You must first be enrolled in the plan before you can submit a claim.
• Once enrolled, claims from March 31, 2023 to December 31, 2023 must be submitted by December 31, 2024, to PBC.
• Claims from 2024 and thereafter have a submission deadline of June 30 of the following year.

To submit these claims, you will need to provide PBC with the following:

• a copy of the practitioner receipt.
• Explanation of Benefits (EOB) statement that shows amounts paid by another PBC plan or by another insurance carrier.

• $5,000 lifetime maximum, per member only (dependents are not eligible to receive this benefit).
• Amounts not paid under your primary employer plan and spousal plan (if applicable) are eligible for reimbursement under the NBA SMHB.
• Once the annual maximum under your primary plan is reached, all claims submitted to PBC will automatically be considered under the NBA SMHB plan if your records are linked
  • Linking your records will allow you to have a single Member Profile account and allow the system to automatically coordinate claim payments between all your PBC plans, including any coverage under a partner's plan.
• The NBA SMHB will consider up to 20 percent more than the allowable per visit limit that is currently provided by the employer plan.
• It’s important to note that if your provider charges more than the allowable amount covered under the NBA SMHB, you will be responsible for paying the difference.

• You will receive a ‘welcome’ email from PBC, confirming your enrolment into the plan. This email will contain specific instructions on how to access the plan and submit claims.
• If your claim is below the allowable limit per visit and is submitted electronically, it should be processed the same day and payment should be in your account within three business days.
• If your claim is over the allowable limit per visit, it will undergo review by a Claims Examiner. Please note, this is a manual process and can take between 4 – 6 weeks to complete.

• This coverage continues to apply to all members considered active in BCNU’s membership database. If you are retired and have decided to work on a casual basis, you are considered active and eligible to enrol.
• If you are a retired member with previous claims dating back to March 31, 2023, please contact membership@bcnu,org.

• Benefit termination aligns with BCNU membership termination date.
• For instance, if membership termination is May 4, 2024, the member has coverage until May 31, 2024. The member has until June 30, 2025, to submit claims with dates of service up to and including May 31, 2024. However, it is recommended that you submit claims as soon as possible after termination.

No minimum hour requirement; coverage is based on active BCNU membership only.

No benefit waiting period; coverage starts immediately upon successful registration with no delay.

Yes, the NBA SMHB is available to all active, dues-paying members covered by the NBA collective agreement.

Your primary benefit plan (your employer plan) will be accessed first. Next, if you have existing secondary coverage (eg. you are a dependent on your partner (spouse's) plan). Then, if there is a remaining out-of-pocket expense it should go to the NBA SMHB plan. For more information about claiming and coordination of benefits, please visit PBC's FAQs.