National Customer Service Day Being Conducted by the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration

[F. Pennell]

For those consumers and/or providers who are running into problems getting
AT or other benefits covered by employer-provided health care plans...

On Saturday, March 20, 1999 (9am-4pm) the regional offices of the Pension 
and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) will be hosting a National 
Customer Service Day.  Workers and their families are invited to telephone 
the agency with questions about their employer-provided pension and health 
benefits.  Offices participating in PWBA's first "Employee Benefits 
Customer Service Day" include Atlanta (404-562-2156), Boston 
(617-565-9600), Chicago (312-353-0900), Cincinnati (606-578-4680), Dallas 
(214-767-6831), Kansas City (816-426-5131), Los Angeles (626-583-7862), New 
York (212-637-0600), Philadelphia (215-596-1134) and San Francisco 
(415-975-4600).  
     
PWBA staff will be available to help members of the public resolve any 
problems in obtaining benefits from their health and pension plans and to 
explain their basic benefit rights, which are protected by Federal law. 
Encourage all employees, particularly individuals with disabilities, to 
take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions about:
     
    - vesting in retirement benefits;
    - withholding of participation in the health plan of a new employer; 
    -  getting payment of a claim for health benefits;
    -  how health, retirement and other fringe benefit programs operate; 
    -  fraud and abuse in operating a pension or health plan;
    -  problems in getting pension benefits or health claims paid; 
    -  laws that protect rights to such benefits; and 
    -  how to exercise your rights to those benefits.
     
Contact the nearest office of the Pension and Welfare Benefits 
Administration, listed in the blue pages of the telephone book, between 
9:00am and 4:00pm.  (Note: Phone numbers have been provided in the first 
paragraph of this message).  Helpful brochures on health and retirement 
benefits can be obtained from PWBA by calling the Publication Hotline at 
1-800-998-7542.    
     
For more information on PWBA and PWBA's "Employee Benefits Customer Service 
Day" contact Gloria Della at (202)219-7222, ext. 3042.