Welfare Notes - November 2017

November, 2017

Enroll in your medical and dental plan
When you have worked 120 mandays within a 12-month period you are eligible for medical and dental coverage. Please be sure to enroll in a plan as soon as possible. It may take the plan a few days to process your paper work and get the information correctly entered into their system.
Any delay on your part in filling out the paper work could delay your coverage and access to use the plan. Be sure to correctly enter your personal information on the enrollment forms with correct birthdays and social security numbers for dependents.
Any dependents that you are including require a marriage certificate copy for the initial enrollment of a spouse and birth certificate copies for the initial enrollment of any children. 
Please be sure to enroll new spouses within the 30 day time frame after the marriage and enroll new born babies within 30 days of their birth. If there will be a delay in obtaining the birth certificate for a new born baby, please enroll the baby and send us the birth certificate and social security number information as soon as possible.
All plan enrollments require the member’s signature except the Dental Health Services of Washington enrollment. Please be sure to sign your forms before sending the forms to us. 
Do not delay your dental plan enrollment since most dental plans require you to be enrolled in their plan for at least 6 months to be eligible for major dental work. 
Eligibility and Your Current address
If you are not planning on shipping for an extended period of time check with the SUP Welfare Plan about your eligibility and when you will need to ship again to avoid a lapse in eligibility and coverage. Check with the Plan office whenever  you finish a voyage to find out where your eligibility stands. Also keep us advised of address changes.
Enroll for Medicare
You can enroll for Medicare on line and avoid long waits at the Social Security office. Go to www.ssa.gov to enroll.