Knowledge of Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB)

As specialists in developing First Nation benefit programs, WP has 25+ years of experience in designing plans that coordinate with the services offered by Health Canada’s Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program, which provides benefits to support First Nations people.

We make it our responsibility to monitor the rules and modify benefit plans accordingly as NIHB evolves. As a result, we continually work with our clients to develop innovative solutions when designing their drug, health and dental plans to recognize NIHB’s obligation, and coordinate their coverage appropriately.

Our coordination with NIHB leads to lower premiums paid for drug, health and dental coverage for Status Employees and those with Blended Families (Status Employees with Non/Status dependents or Non-Status Employee with Status Dependents), keeping your claims experience down, and in turn, lowering your costs.

Group Insurance Plans

We help to ensure you have a good company insurance plan, whether you work for a Band Council, Indigenous business or non-profit organization. The following outlines how we work with you to implement and revise your contracts.

With any changes to a group insurance contract, WP first completes a review of all draft booklets and contracts for accuracy, then send them to you for review and sign-off. At the same time, we develop an employee communications strategy, which includes:

  • Employee announcement memos/emails outlining the plan and/or changes
  • Presentations outlining the impact to employees and any cost implications
  • Hosting employee communication and education sessions (larger groups, smaller groups or by department)
  • Group/Individual sessions, which can be run in-person or virtually

Claims Escalation

Our experienced and well-trained staff deal directly with employee claim escalations on a personal level. Our focus is to provide strong support to Indigenous employees and their families to help resolve claims issues and inquiries.

Claims issues or concerns are more prevalent where there is coordination of health and dental coverage with NIHB. Our staff works directly with practitioners and dental offices to help resolve claims issues. Most often, it’s simply a matter of our office educating the practitioner or dentist on how the coordinated plan works.