On October 8, TAG hosted a virtual Lunch & Learn on benefits and wellness resources offered by the Motion Picture Industry Pension & Health Plans (MPI) and the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF). The presentation was moderated by TAG Field Rep Mairghread Scott.
MPI is the health insurance and pension plan provided to TAG members; it also includes wellness benefits. MPTF is a nonprofit that provides additional services and programs, some in partnership with MPI. Following are the three presentations delivered during the Lunch & Learn.
Jennifer George
MPTF, Director of Community Social Services
View benefits from George’s presentation here.
MPTF supports working and retired members of the entertainment community. Programs range from childcare to aging services and resources for various life challenges. Its mission is to support the entertainment community with dignity and purpose, and to help in times of need.
Wasserman Campus, Woodland Hills
mptf.com/residential
This retirement community is home to just under 200 residents. It serves individuals working in or retired from the entertainment industry. Providing skilled nursing care, the 40-acre campus has a full continuum of care, from independent living to assisted living. As needs progress, residents will progress through different levels of care. This is only for people who have worked directly in the industry or their spouse. Adult aging parents not eligible for this program.
Samuel Goldwyn Foundation Children’s Center
mptf.com/child-care
In partnership with Bright Horizons, this childcare center based in West Los Angeles serves children from six weeks to six years. It caters to the needs of entertainment professionals, from scheduling to cost of care to types of services.
Community Social Services
mptf.com/services
For people 64 years and younger and their family members, this program serves thousands of industry professionals a year, including those experiencing unemployment or underemployment, or short- or long-term disability. It uses a comprehensive clinical case management model: they will talk with you, prioritize what’s going on in your life, and create a plan for how they can support you. They can:
- Serve as a guide for how to access resources.
- Provide temporary financial assistance.
- Help you navigate applying for permanent disability.
- Link you to a therapist for mental health needs.
Elder Connection
mptf.com/elder-connection
This is the sister program to the Community Social Services program. It is for 65 years and older, or for a younger industry professionals with concerns about their aging parent. i.e. There has been a change in health status or frequent falls or hospitalizations.
Veterans Benefits Assistance
mptf.com/mtpfs-veterans-benefits-assistance-program
If you’re a veteran, surviving spouse of veteran, or industry member with a parent who’s a veteran, MPTF has certified claims agents to help navigate the process to access benefits, as well as the red tape. They can also help you find all the benefits you might be eligible for as a veteran.
Entertainment Health Insurance Solutions
mptf.com/health-insurance
If you’re at risk of losing your health coverage or know that you’re going to lose it because you didn’t secure enough MPI hours (see MPI section below), it’s important to reach out to MPTF as soon as possible. They have licensed brokers who can help you navigate your insurance options while understanding what coverage you were receiving from your MPI plan.
Monthly Medicare 101 Workshops
When reaching the age for Medicare, there are penalties if you don’t access your Medicare properly. In conjunction with MPI, MPTF offers webinars to give you the information you need to make informed decisions.
Samuel Goldwyn Center for Behavioral Health
mptf.com/behavioral-health/
This resource is for anyone 55 and older who is experiencing a psychological or psychiatric crisis and needs some stabilization. It is an inpatient, 12-bed unit on the MPTF campus in Woodland Hills. It’s the only MPTF program that’s not exclusive to industry folks. This is for someone dealing with issues such as anxiety, depression, and struggles with medication adjustments. It is not for issues like substance use and withdrawal. Typically, it is covered by insurance.
Palliative Care Program
mptf.com/palliative-care/
This nationally recognized, award-winning program provides the palliative care service that comes before hospice care. It is for individuals with a life-limiting or life-altering illness. The program’s multidisciplinary team is composed of a doctor, a palliative care doctor, a nurse practitioner, a chaplain, and a social worker. Types of illnesses covered range from cancer to advanced dementia. Supplementing a person’s existing treatment team, it focuses on quality of life and symptom management.
Volunteer Opportunities
mptf.com/volunteering/
MPTF offers numerous opportunities to volunteer on campus and out in the community. These include the Daily Call Sheet, where they match homebound individuals with volunteers who make a weekly or monthly call to help reduce social isolation and loneliness.
Arlene Ramirez
MPI Benefits, Member Benefits Specialist
View Ramirez’s presentation here.
MPI benefits are determined by the hours you work. It’s important for you to track that they are being counted and reported toward your eligibility and accumulation of benefits for your pension and health benefits. 400 hours are needed per term to maintain your health benefits. If you did not work 400 hours in a term, following are some eligibility extension options to help.
Eligibility Extension: Bank of Hours
If as an MPI Participant you have worked more than the 400 hours required per term to maintain eligibility, your bank of hours is available. Any hours in excess of 400 can be saved in a bank up to a maximum of 450 hours (this maximum is regardless of how many additional hours you have worked). If needed, MPI will automatically apply these extensions to your account, and banked hours will only be used as needed. For example, if you’re short 40 hours in your next term to be eligible for your health benefits, 40 hours will be withdrawn from your “bank” and the remaining hours will continue to roll over.
Eligibility Extension: COBRA
COBRA is an extension option for benefits when you fail to meet the 400-hour requirement in a term and have exhausted your bank of hours. Although COBRA requires payment on the part of the Participant, MPI considers COBRA an extension because it is viewed exactly as that at the doctor’s office. The doctor won’t be able to tell whether you are on a COBRA plan or on the MPI Active regular plan. Your benefits continue to be the same, including no changes in your ID number. The biggest difference is that you pay out of pocket for COBRA, and because your MPI benefits are so comprehensive, the COBRA plan is expensive. Under COBRA, you can elect family enrollment or individual enrollment, so if you can’t enroll your whole family, you can always choose to enroll yourself only or a specific family member if, for example, they have any ongoing health treatments or health concerns that require them to maintain their same coverage.
Eligibility Extension: Short-Term Disability
This option is available if you have an illness or an injury that prevents you from working. Contact MPI here and they will send you a detailed email with the criteria and the steps to take. MPI does not have a connection with EDD (Unemployment Department), so if you are on state disability, EDD won’t notify MPI. As a Participant, you need to contact MPI to initiate the process. It’s important to note that this is an extension, so if you have been ineligible for benefits, you cannot use disability hours to re-qualify, and MPI cannot combine them with your bank, but only with worked hours.
Pension and Retiree Health Benefits
Everyone’s situation and circumstances are different based on hours worked, years worked, and start date in the industry (with certain rules changing in regard to benefits based on start dates). It’s important to contact MPI here for a quote on your current accumulations and benefits. They can let you know if you have vested into your pensions and can walk you through your options.
Retiring only your health benefits is an option. To do so you need a minimum of 15 years and 20,000 hours if you have had at least one qualified year between the year 2000 and the year 2015. If you started after 2015, then you will need 20,000 hours and 20 years. Call MPI to make sure you have qualified for the earliest date you can retire. You can just have your health benefits guaranteed, and then at age 65, if you are 65 and over, Medicare will be required for your retiree health benefits to be effective. MPI has great Medicare retiree plans and can answer all questions about that.
MPI’s health plans are Advantage plans, and if you vest into the MPI health plan, you do not need to supplement with other plans. The MPI Anthem plan is a PPO plan that combines Medicare and Anthem into a single payer. Health Net and Kaiser are for California only. They are HMOs but also kinds of Advantage plans, which means you don’t need any supplemental plans. They combine your Medicare into your plan. If you live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut, you get Medicare primary and the option of enrolling in Oxford United Healthcare as your secondary or supplemental plan.
The MPI health plan also has a provision for earlier retirement, which is disability. For disability retirement, you must have a minimum of 10,000 hours and 10 qualified years. You must be permanently disabled, have no break in service, and have a Social Security disability award.
On the MPI website, you can view your eligibility, hours, work history, accumulation for pension, explanation of benefits and claims, referrals for MP3, and videos on topics such as retirement and Individual Account Plan. You can also email or call for information, and an in-person visitor center is available by appointment only through the website, with locations in Studio City, California, and New York City.
Brenda Weiner
MPI Wellness, Wellness Program Manager
View Weiner’s presentation here.
The MPI Wellness Program offers wellness-related benefits available to you and your family. These benefits vary depending on your plan. To get started, go to the Wellness Program page on the MPI website.
Optum Live & Work Well
Optum offers wellness benefits for mental health and other behavioral health resources. Benefits include elder care, childcare special needs, ADHD, and much more, including the following:
Emotional Wellbeing Solutions (EWS)
This provides five free therapy sessions per year, with no co-pay for Participants and everyone in their household. This benefit is available per issue. For example, if you want to talk about anxiety, you get five sessions. Then, perhaps you need to talk about a relationship or need couple’s therapy. That would count as a separate issue and you would be eligible for five more free sessions. For your free sessions, call 866-248-4094 (before 12/31/25) and 866-528-1306 (after 1/1/26). Once you have exhausted your five sessions, you can roll over into your Optum Behavioral Care, with a $5 co-pay per session, with unlimited sessions. This co-pay is the same for Participants’ dependents.
As well, EWS offers TalkSpace, a 24/7 phone line to connect you with a master’s-level therapist who will answer questions and speak with you, whether you have a serious issue or just need to decompress.
Live and Work Well
This website has numerous resources, videos, and consultations. It is available to all MPI Participants no matter which health plan they are on.
Active & Fit
This program offers discount gym memberships to Participants and their dependents on their health plans. You must access this benefit directly through your plan (i.e. Blue Cross). It includes more than 11,000 gyms nationwide with rates starting as low as $28 a month. When you travel nationwide, you can also get access to a gym in the location that you’re traveling. You can also choose premium tier gyms for 20% to 70% off the normal rate.
One Pass Select
Operating differently than Active & Fit, One Pass Select has tiers, and whatever tier you join, you get access to all the gyms in that tier. The lowest price tier ($10 a month) offers live streaming classes. The next level up, Classic ($34.99 a month) includes LA Fitness, Planet Fitness, and others depending on your zip code. The Standard tier includes all gyms in the Classic tier as well as more premium gyms, and the Elite tier ($139 month) includes all gyms in the lower tiers plus CrossFit, Orangetheory, and more.
Pelago
Every MPI member is eligible for this free program to quit smoking, vaping, or chewing tobacco. A physician referral is not needed. Your program will include a dedicated coach trained in substance abuse and quitting. The program is six weeks long, followed by a year of support.
Reduce or Quit Drinking
This benefit is offered to everyone on the Anthem Blue Cross PPO plan ages 18 and over. There is no cost for you if you are an eligible Participant. A referral is not needed. In this program, a coach works with you throughout the entire year of the program. You are not required to remain in the program for the entire 52 weeks.
Wellness Classes
Whether or not you are a current MPI Participant, you can take free yoga, tai chi, full body fit, dance, meditation, and self care classes.
Calm App
All MPI members are eligible for a premium subscription to the Calm app. Whether you have 30 seconds or 30 minutes, Calm content is designed to suit your schedule and needs. The app includes sleep stories, music, meditation, and offerings for children.
**This summary is intended to serve as an introduction to MPTF and MPI benefits. Please contact each organization directly to verify all information presented here.
You can find a breakdown of MPI’s wellness benefits by plan, as well as detailed instructions for how to access resources, on TAG’s Emotional Wellness and Mental Health page