ESTI Consulting Services - Telecommunication Worker's Long Term Disability Plan (TW-LTD) System Development Project

Telecommunication Worker's Long Term Disability Plan (TW-LTD) System Development Project

The Telecommunication Worker's Pension and Benefit Plans (TWPP/TWBP) have for some time been responsible for the administration of the Telecommunication Worker's Long Term Disability Plan (TW-LTD) as one of the services they offer to their members. Originally the LTD plan was funded via contributions to the Pension Plan and in 1992 the LTD plan became separately funded and administered. Currently there is an average of 270 active claims with approximately 5-10 claims being processed each month.

As part of the CRISTel administration system development project, the TWPP/TWBP have already implemented a central Contact database, Member Information System, Payment Production System and Benefit Administration System. On December 3rd, 2004 the Long Term Disability System was released to production for the TW-LTD staff.

Like the other components already within CRISTel, the LTD System was integrated to the Contact and MIS systems to provide a single source of data regarding member contact information, payroll data to produce benefit calculations, and other member related data. Previously the LTD Plan relied on paper files to record claim activity and various spreadsheets to manually produce benefit calculations and member correspondence. With the implementation of the LTD System the staff now have quick and easy access to view and update all LTD claim related information, an online benefit calculator, as well as online Smart Letters to automate and retain correspondence with the member.

Previously the only source of LTD benefits other than paper records was when payment amounts were processed through the Payment Production System. This source of data allowed for the programmatic conversion of data into the LTD System instead of manual data entry from paper files.

The next phase of the TW-LTD system project will include:

Integration to the payment system to electronically transfer benefit payments to the payment system, which produces the cheques and EFT's.
Integration to the benefit system to electronically transfer repayments to short term benefit plans. This applies for any overpayments resulting from short term benefits as well as offsets to long term benefits with remaining short term benefit payment amounts outstanding.

Jane Olsen, Payment Clerk, TWP Long Term Disability Plan

Telecommunications Workers Benefit Plan Team

Debbie Ellis, Administrator
Jane Olsen, Payment Clerk

ESTI Project Team

Kenton Andres, Project Manager
Heinrich Putter, Analyst