The Disability Board of Management is responsible for the overall administrative and financial management of the Disability Insurance Plan, including the review of the contract of insurance, review of any financial or service agreement, the financial status of the Plan, the services of the Insurer, the administrative fees and charges, the adequacy of reserves, the premium levels, the disposition of disputed claims, and other matters referred to it by the National Joint Council on the overall operation of the Plan, and for making appropriate recommendations to the National Joint Council.
Committee Advisor: Laura Sanford
Quarterly Report to the National Joint Council (September 2023)
Regular activities:
- The Board of Management has met once since the last Council meeting and considered five (5) appeals over the reporting period. The Board agreed with Sun Life’s (SL) decision to decline to provide disability benefits for four (4) appeals and deferred their decision pending additional information for one (1) appeal.
- In the five (5) appeal cases reviewed, SL declined to provide disability benefits as it was of the view that the medical information on file did not support findings of continuous total disability that would prevent the claimants from performing each and every duty of their regular occupation for one (1) appeal; denied benefits beyond the change of definition date (COD) for two (2) appeals; and considered the claimant not totally disabled for any occupation for one (1) appeal. The Board carefully reviewed the information on file.
- The Board wishes to note the departure of Bargaining Agent Side representative, Colby Briggs, from the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) and thank them for their contribution to the Board.
- The Board welcomed a new Bargaining Agent Side member, Demi Francoeur, from PIPSC.
- Based on a question raised at the last Council meeting regarding DI Plan gender demographics, it can be clarified that this information was shared in a previous Quarterly Report, however, was not part of the statistics tabled by SL for the purpose of the DI Annual Report.
- The Board continues to receive monthly financial updates from SL.
- The DI sub-committee continued developing recommendations on the provisions of the Disability Insurance Plan for consideration by the Treasury Board and submitted the Terms of Reference to the Executive Committee for approval at its September meeting.
Outstanding item(s):
- Forty-seven (47) appeals. Of these, twenty-three (23) appeals have been received by the NJC Secretariat from SL and are scheduled for review, and twenty-four (24) are still under review with SL.
Next meeting: November 14, 2023