Board Communique – May 29, 2025
Changes to extended health care coverage for retired members
After a full review of the plan’s extended health coverage for retired members, the College Pension Board of Trustees is taking action to ensure your health coverage in retirement remains valuable and sustainable.
The board reviewed data on how coverage is being used, sought advice from benefits professionals and conducted a financial analysis. These insights helped determine the changes made.
Member feedback played a major role in our review. Thank you to those who participated in the survey, and to the Association of British Columbia College Pension Plan Retirees for helping us prepare the survey and consulting with us on different plan design options.
Summary of changes effective January 1, 2026
Prescription drug coverage
Coverage will change to 80 per cent reimbursement for eligible prescription drugs up to an annual maximum of $20,000 per claimant. This is a change from 80 per cent of the first $1,000 of paid claims, then 100 per cent coverage thereafter. Given the low usage and limited access across the province, we are removing the preferred arrangement on prescriptions with Costco and applying those savings to the plan.
Introducing an annual maximum allows the board to maintain a comprehensive prescription drug plan with access to nearly all medically necessary medications on a sustainable basis.
To support members who may reach their $20,000 annual maximum due to high-cost specialty drugs, GreenShield will proactively and confidentially contact members and offer guidance in securing alternative funding sources, such as BC PharmaCare, the BC Cancer Agency or the drug manufacturers. By coordinating benefits with these sources, members can continue receiving their high-cost medications while also slowing the accumulation of claims toward their $150,000 overall lifetime health maximum under the plan.
The cost savings realized from changes to the prescription drug plan will be used to improve the following:
Deductible: The deductible will be reduced from $250 to $200 per person per calendar year. The deductible does not apply to vision care and hearing aids.
Vision care: Coverage increases to $300 every two years for eye exams, glasses and/or contact lenses (every year for children). This is a change from $150 every two years for glasses and/or contact lenses only. Prior to this change, eye exams were not included.
Hearing aids: Coverage increases to a total of $2,000 every four years (every two years for a dependent child). This is a change from $700 per ear every four years.
Paramedical services: Coverage changes from $250 per practitioner per year to $750 for all practitioners combined. Members will have more choice and flexibility in how to use their paramedical coverage.
Reasonable and customary limits review
As part of our extended health care plan changes, we also reviewed GreenShield’s reasonable and customary limits. These limits help ensure that health service charges are fair and in line with market rates. GreenShield checks these limits every year to keep up with inflation and market changes. The limits protect our plan from providers charging too much for services. Some of these limits haven’t been updated in a while, so we’re adjusting them to match GreenShield’s standards. This means you might see slight changes in how much you are reimbursed for certain items or services.
The board strives to provide a valuable extended health care plan at a reasonable cost and to ensure that changes are fair for current and future retirees. Making retirement health coverage available to members is a board priority, but the benefits are not guaranteed. Retirement health coverage may be changed at any time by the board, including—but not necessarily limited to—increasing, decreasing or eliminating the coverage or the benefits and amounts of premiums and deductibles.
Learn more
Visit the Retirement health coverage topic area to learn more about the coverage available through the plan. If you are still working, you can register for the Approaching retirement webinar under Learning resources to learn about the health care considerations you’ll have in retirement.
You can also contact the GreenShield Customer Contact Centre for specific questions relating to these changes or any questions about health care coverage. You can speak to a GreenShield representative at 1-888-711-1119, or email customer.service@greenshield.ca.