Members of Waasawärtsilä sickness fund:
INVITATION TO MEETING
THE ORDINARY GENERAL FUND MEETING
Tuesday 29th of April 2025 at 14.00 Wärtsilä STH Archi (Frilundintie 5, Vaasa)
The meeting will handle statutory matters and statutory amendments to the sections 4 §, 7 § and 13 §. The documents will be available for viewing at the office one week before the meeting.
Welcome
Note!
If you were a customer of Handelsbanken before and have now been transferred to a different bank, please inform us of your new account number as soon as possible.
Newsletters
By decision of the Board of Directors on 19.09.2024, it has been decided that the costs of private-sector cancer treatments and examinations will not be reimbursed.
01.10.2024.
The sending of receipts on additional benefit compensations by post will cease as of 01.10.2024. Upon request, the receipt will be sent by post, but it must be requested after each reimbursement.
19.08.2024.
Emmi Kiviniemi, CEO of the Health Benefits Fund, is on leave of absence from 19.08.2024. until 21.05.2025. Monica Krokfors will work as the CEO in the meantime.
01.06.2024.
Financial Supervisory Authority has confirmed our new rules from 01.06.2024. Check out the new rules (Finnish). The rules in English are on the way.
Note!
According to our Rules additional benefits are not paid during the strike (unpaid leave). In this case the member has only right to KELA reimbursements.
Exceptional opening hours:
Office is open Mon-Wed until 15.00. Thursdays our office is closed, customer service via e-mail or Iris e-service. On Fridays the office is open from 8:30 – 11:30.
WaasaWärtsilä Sickness Fund now have an e-service called Iris, from where you can claim reimbursements. At Iris, you will also find your dental care and eyeglass allowance situation.
SIGN IN HERE!
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LAYOFF PERIOD:
The Kela card with a sickness insurance number MAY NOT be used.
During the specified weeks/days, the member must pay the full cost of medications at pharmacies, Mehiläinen, and other locations that have an invoicing agreement with the insurance fund, and only apply for reimbursement for the Kela portion of the costs from the sickness insurance fund.
Note: These instructions apply to costs incurred during the layoff period.
For any unclear matters, it is advisable to contact our office in advance.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE INSURANCE FUND.
New opening hours
Mon-Wed 08:30 – 11:30 and 13:00 – 15:00
Thu the office is closed, customer service preferably via Iris e-service, but you can also reach us via email.
Fri 8:30 – 11:30, afternoon the office is closed
050 379 8203
waasawartsilan.sairauskassa@kela.fi
Changes to Electronic Authentication Starting 14.09.2023.
The reform of the Payment Services Act has introduced new requirements for the identification methods offered by banks. From now on, services must be accessed using a method that meets the definition of strong authentication. The purpose of this legal change is to ensure the security of customer data and payments.
The changes coming into effect in September regarding the authentication methods provided by banks also apply to services such as the Kela online service and Omakanta, which use suomi.fi authentication.
National Agreement
The sickness insurance fund has signed a national invoicing agreement with the Mehiläinen medical center. The agreement is effective from July 1, 2019. Billing can be done by showing the Kela card.
NOTE! Starting June 10, Mehiläinen will use automatic patient invoicing. A bill will be sent to the customer if they have not confirmed their membership in the fund on-site. To prevent this, it is extremely important that all members of the sickness insurance fund show their Kela card at the Mehiläinen counter to ensure correct invoicing.
JOINING THE SICKNESS INSURANCE FUND
Both employees and office staff can join the sickness insurance fund within 6 months of the start of their employment.
We are a workplace fund that pays Kela reimbursements to our members, as well as covering deductibles and providing additional benefits. We also handle sickness and parental leave compensation for our members.
You can find more information here, in Compass, or at our office in Wärtsilä’s STH building (in Vaskiluoto).
You can join the fund by filling out the form below:
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
The form can be printed, filled out, and submitted to WaasaWärtsilä Sickness Fund, Teollisuuskatu 1, 65170 Vaasa, or emailed to waasawartsilan.sairauskassa@kela.fi.
HOW TO ORDER A TAXI
You are entitled to a Kela-subsidized taxi ride when you order a taxi using the regional ordering number. You will receive the travel reimbursement directly in the taxi, and you will pay a maximum of €25 as a deductible. NOTE! If you order the taxi in any other way, Kela will not reimburse your trip, and therefore, neither will the sickness fund. The requirement is that you need the taxi due to your health condition.
All trips (even those under the deductible) accumulate toward the travel cap, which has an annual deductible amount (the “travel cap”) of €300.
Instructions for ordering a taxi can be found in the following links:
How to Order a Taxi
For more information about Kela benefits, visit www.kela.fi, and for additional benefits from the sickness fund, visit www.waasawartsilan-sairauskassa.net.
NOTICE
Dear Sickness Fund Member,
PLEASE REMEMBER that reimbursements in accordance with the fund’s rules will not be paid to a member who falls ill while on unpaid leave (such as layoff, care leave, study leave, or sabbatical).
The member must notify the sickness fund themselves when taking unpaid leave.
Please submit all original documents and the completed reimbursement claim (if the cost is eligible for Kela reimbursement), along with the payment receipt, to the fund. The bank receipt is not mandatory; it is sufficient that the invoice shows the note “paid” along with the date.
For eyeglasses reimbursements, a receipt with the member’s name from the optician is required.
Pay the costs in full (e.g., dental fees) and do not deduct Kela’s portion! This will enable us to reimburse you more quickly. If the Kela reimbursement has already been deducted, you may have to wait several weeks for your reimbursement. An exception applies to additional pension members, for whom we cannot process Kela benefits through the fund.
The sickness fund has entered into invoicing agreements with pharmacies (in Vaasa, nearby municipalities, and the University Pharmacy), Mehiläinen, Terveystalo, and Synlab. These agreements operate by showing the Kela card at the counter with the sickness fund number 12702 (Mehiläinen and Terveystalo; only for members who are employed). NOTE! When visiting a medical center, you must also check out at the medical center’s counter when leaving, to ensure proper invoicing.
FOR PENSION MEMBERS:
Pension members are not reimbursed for expenses incurred at private medical centers, with the exceptions of ophthalmologists, gynecologists, and urologists, which the government has designated for reimbursement. Pension members cannot use direct reimbursement agreements with medical centers, so they must pay the costs upfront.
NOTE! Members receiving both wages and a pension simultaneously (= part-time pensioners) are treated as employed members in terms of additional benefits.
Those who are transitioning into a pension (the so-called “pension tunnel”) can rejoin the sickness fund upon retiring. The requirement for rejoining after unemployment is that there has been no employment elsewhere in between, and the sickness fund membership has been continuous for at least 15 years.
For more information, please contact the sickness fund office!