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Union & Taft-Hartley fundsUsing your union health fund for virtual outpatient treatment.
Multiemployer trust funds (Taft-Hartley funds), trades and longshore funds, public-sector union funds, and the entertainment-industry guild plans cover a lot of working members. Your plan is unique. We verify yours specifically before you commit to anything.
The honest version.
Shift Support Network is out-of-network with the carriers and third-party administrators that run union health funds, with in-network credentialing in process. Many multiemployer funds were written with an out-of-network behavioral health benefit specifically for the situations where in-network options do not fit a working member's life. We tell you what your fund covers, in plain English, before you commit to care.
A short overview, no fine print.
Every fund is different. The numbers depend on your fund's plan document, your hours bank, the year's plan design, and whether you are on the active or retiree tier. They are intentionally not on this page. We pull yours with you on the phone or in a two-minute form.
The pieces your fund usually has
- An allowed amount the fund agrees the service is worth.
- An out-of-network deductible you meet before the fund starts splitting the cost.
- A coinsurance split after the deductible.
- An out-of-pocket maximum for the year, after which the fund covers more or all.
- An authorization step for intensive outpatient and PHP-intensity hour expansion, which we handle.
- A Member Assistance Program or Employee Assistance Program on many trades and entertainment funds. Counseling is confidential and is not the same as making a claim on the medical benefit.
What we do for you on the benefits side
- Call the carrier or third-party administrator on the back of your card and pull the actual out-of-network behavioral numbers for the level of care you need.
- Coordinate with your MAP or EAP if you used one as the first call.
- Translate the benefit into the dollar cost of a week of treatment, so there are no surprises.
- Submit the authorization and stay on the case through review and renewal.
- Bill what the fund considers reasonable, so there is no balance-bill surprise later.
If your card or your fund name is in one of these groups.
We do not list specific funds because we are not endorsed by any of them and we want to be straightforward about that. We do work with members across all of these categories.
- Building and construction trades funds. Carpenters, electricians, ironworkers, laborers, operating engineers, plumbers and pipefitters, sheet metal, painters, roofers, and the joint apprenticeship and trust funds that support them.
- Teamsters and transportation funds. Local and joint-council Teamster trust funds, longshore and warehouse funds, freight and parcel funds.
- Service-worker funds. UFCW, UNITE HERE, SEIU, and other service-industry multiemployer funds.
- Entertainment-industry funds and guild plans. See our Entertainment Industry plans page.
- Public-sector and uniformed-service funds. Police, fire, corrections, transit, and state and municipal employee plans.
- Tribal and tribal-government plans. Self-insured tribal nation and tribal-enterprise plans.
On a fund that does not fit one of these categories? Most multiemployer trust funds work the same way. Send us the carrier on the back of your card and we will verify the out-of-network behavioral health benefit on your specific plan.
You keep working, the fund pays the claim, the clinical record stays separate.
Two-minute benefit check
You send the member ID and group number on the front of your card. We call the carrier or third-party administrator, pull the out-of-network behavioral benefit for intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization, and confirm what your share of the cost would be.
How it works Step 2Short clinical screen
A licensed clinician confirms the right level of care, your schedule preference (morning, afternoon, or evening cohort), and any coordination with your union's Member Assistance Program or your employer's Employee Assistance Program.
How it works Step 3You start, usually the same or next business day
Telehealth, every cohort, with court-ready documentation when there is a legal angle and 42 CFR Part 2 protections on the clinical record itself.
How it worksThe clinical record is protected separately from the claim.
What the fund and its TPA see
- Date of service, the level of care, the diagnosis category, and the cost of the claim. Standard for any medical claim.
- The authorization request our team submits to keep the program covered.
What stays with us
- The contents of your sessions, what you discuss in group, your detailed clinical record.
- Under 42 CFR Part 2, federal law protects substance-use treatment records beyond standard HIPAA. The fund pays the claim. The treatment record stays with us, separately, unless you sign a specific authorization to share something.
Verify your fund's benefits in two minutes.
Send us the carrier or third-party administrator on the back of your card and your fund name. We come back with your specific out-of-network deductible, coinsurance, out-of-pocket maximum, and what a typical week of intensive outpatient or partial hospitalization-intensity care would cost you. No commitment until you decide.
If you or someone you are with is in immediate danger, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911. Shift Support Network is an outpatient program and is not an emergency service.