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How Our Fund Works

The Local Unions have agreements with many different employers that require contributions to the Fund for their employees’ work in covered employment. In return for these contributions, our Fund provides certain protections to participants including medical, dental, prescription drugs, vision, wellness, disability, and death benefits.

We are self-funded for all benefits except life insurance and AD&D benefits. Self-funded means that employer and self-payments (and any interest earned on those contributions) are used to pay the cost of the health care expenses that our participants incur. Every covered expense incurred by a participant is paid out by the Fund, and directly affects our bottom line. However, we choose to operate this way because we’ve determined that it’s more cost-effective to pay claims on a self-funded basis than to insure benefits.

The 4th District IBEW Health Fund works with outside companies so that participants can receive discounted fees when they receive medical, prescription drug, and vision services. Through our negotiated arrangements, you and the Fund realize significant cost-savings.