Application Process​

For a MI Retiree Health Plan application and more details on eligibility requirements, contact the Heartland Benefit Plan Administrators, LLC (“Heartland Administrators “) at 937-665-1900, extension 2190.

Eligibility Requirements

1. You must have reached age 55 but not age 65; and

2. You must have participated as an active full-time employee in the Michigan UFCW Unions and Employers Health and Welfare Fund for at least 15 years. If you participated in the Michigan UFCW Unions and Employers Health and Welfare Plan, but without leaving the active employment with your Employer, transferred participation to the Heartland Fund as a result of your Employer’s negotiating a transfer of participation into the Heartland Fund, those years will be counted for purposes of satisfying the 15-year requirement; and

3. You must have retired directly from active* employment with a Contributing Employer with eligibility for an immediate pension from the UFCW International Union – Industry Pension Fund or a predecessor pension fund and you have applied for such pension; and

4. Throughout the period of five years immediately preceding retirement, you must have been employed by one or more of the Contributing Employers in a position covered by a collective bargaining agreement (regardless of whether contributions were made to this Plan with regard to your service for the entire five-year period); and

5. For at least three of the five years immediately preceding retirement, you must have worked as a full-time employee for whom employer contributions were made to the Michigan UFCW Unions and Employers Health and Welfare Plan and/or Heartland Fund, except that where the Plan has existed for less than three years or a Contributing Employer has participated in this Plan for less than three years, this requirement shall be applied by substituting such lesser period.

6. In order to enroll in the Retiree Health Plan, if eligible, you must file an application for coverage with the Plan Administrative Office. You will not be covered under the Retiree Health Plan for any period before an application for enrollment is filed. 

*Active employment includes your continuation on your Employer’s seniority list with recall rights, for up to 12-months after your Employer stops making contributions to the Plan on your behalf. You must apply for and be entitled to receive a pension effective no later than the expiration of the 12-month period.