Public Employees' Benefit Board The PEBB Connection, December 2012

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Public Employees' Benefit Board

The PEBB Connection, December 2012

Download a copy

Click here to download this month's edition of The PEBB Connection, and print a copy to share with your spouse or domestic partner.

Give yourself the gift of health in 2013

It's time to choose your 2013 HEM health actions! Here are suggestions.

Choose what you want to do – just for you based on your health assessment.

Click here for a list of options – they can help you think about what you might like to try or to continue.

Start simply – one employee says flat out, “The e-lessons I took for 2012 HEM on stress and sleep changed my life.”

Choose what fits – does your daily routine fit fresh salads for lunch, evening runs with your son, gym workouts with a buddy or a daily walk with your four-legged BFF?

Pick prevention – have a recommended exam, cancer screening or disease prevention class. Here’s one on diabetes in Marion/Polk and one in Lane County.

Don’t worry about deadlines – you have a whole year for this.

Be assured about privacy – it’s nobody’s business but yours.

Look forward to success – come next Open Enrollment you’ll have confidence in saying “yes,” you took and tracked two health actions in 2013.

About the “tracking” thing – use whatever works. It’s not for proof; it’s just that tracking our progress really does help us stay on track to getting there.


How to influence your provider and save

The next time you contact your primary care clinic in the PEBB Statewide plan’s network, ask if they’re a state-recognized patient-centered primary care home (PCPCH). Let them know that, when they are, you get a five percent reduction on what you have to pay for their services. PEBB members are having some success with this tactic. Dawn Creach with the state’s PCPCH team talks to many clinics about applying. “I’ve also talked to clinics that are applying because their PEBB members are encouraging them to – that’s very exciting.” Click here for a map of PCPCH locations around the state with a link to the list of these clinics in the Statewide Plan.

We're advancing technologies for better health, better care and lower costs

Electronic communications between hospitals and providers

There's a real need for quick, correct communications between

hospitals and providers when patients are discharged after surgery.

The situation: You take your young daughter home from the hospital after having her tonsils out. At discharge, the nurse says, “Stay on top of pain and hydration with this pain medication and water every four hours.”

The problem: Your daughter just wants to sleep.

The question: Do you A) let her sleep, B) follow the discharge orders or C) call her doctor for advice?

The answer: B. You might want to go right to C, but your daughter’s doctor may not even have her hospital discharge summary yet.

Sometimes these summaries aren’t sent to providers quickly enough. Some hospitals send them by fax instead of secure email. Faxes may not get picked up quickly. Hospitals provide different types of discharge summaries, and providers can get confused.

Connecting hospitals and providers with clear, consistent electronic discharge summaries is a goal of the new Health Share Oregon coordinated care organization (CCO), which includes Providence, Kaiser, Legacy and OHSU. Click here for more about this CCO’s work on electronic discharge summaries.

Telehealth to deliver care where you are

Through secure, online video conferencing, Providence Health eXpress is delivering health care to PEBB members at worksites.

From their control center at Providence Health and Services in Portland, highly qualified nurse practitioners use the technology to diagnose, prescribe and recommend lab services for most common acute conditions (click here to see a list of conditions).

Patients schedule appointments for these services by calling the control center at 855-229-6460. They typically see a provider the same day.

Click here to learn more about Providence Health eXpress providers, and view a short video on the pilot project in Salem.


Telehealth comes to Corrections staff

Corrections employees and their families in eastern Oregon will soon have access to Providence Health eXpress pilots providing free telehealth-care services. One starts up Dec. 17 at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendelton. Another opens at Two Rivers Correctional Institution Jan. 7. The initial pilot, in the Labor and Industries Building on the Capital Mall in Salem, is looking to match operations by opening at 7:30 a.m. and allowing appointments for dependents. Click here to see Providence Health eXpress FAQs for the most up-to-date information. *All three Providence Health eXpress pilots serve members in PEBB’s Kaiser plans as well as PEBB Statewide and Providence Choice plans.*

Choose your Providence Choice Medical Home to save on costs

If you’re new to the Providence Choice Plan, you’ll want to

establish your medical home with the plan now so you get the best benefit.

Not only does Providence Choice have lower monthly premiums, it also gives you lower costs when you get care through your Medical Home.

When you visit your medical home on record, you have only a $5 copay for most services ($30 in the part-time plan).
When you see providers outside your Medical Home on record (or if you don’t record your Medical Home with Providence), you pay 30 percent coinsurance (50 percent in the part-time plan) for most services.

Don’t miss out on the savings from being a member in Providence Choice. If you haven’t selected a Medical Home clinic in the Providence Choice network of Medical Homes and communicated your choice to Providence, click here to take these two easy steps now, before the start of the new plan year.

Good news about texting - it can help to improve your health

Text4baby promotes care for moms and infants

Text4baby is a new way for pregnant women and new moms to get important health information and reminders.

They get three messages a week, with content cued by their stage of pregnancy or baby’s age.

Initial studies show this free service has the potential for fewer missed office visits and more babies vaccinated timely.

Click here to sign up for text4baby, a service of the National Healthy Mothers - Healthy Babies Coalition, with sponsorship from Johnson & Johnson.

Texting helps with tobacco cessation

Evidence from recent research suggests text messaging can help smokers quit. This may be especially important for teens and other young people who have already become addicted to nicotine.

The Cochrane Collaboration recently reviewed studies on the effect of text messages sent to and from smokers who are trying to quit. The results show that texting can double their chances of success.

Click here to learn more about the research and evidence in an article and audio from Pattie Neighmond on Shots: the Health Care Blog, from NPR.

Teens, texting and tobacco

Some teens have taken to texting to the point where it’s a habit. Some have taken up the tobacco habit, too, to the point where it’s an addiction.

If your teenager has started smoking, you might want to share this link to SmokefreeTXT.

SmokefreeTXT is a mobile service designed for young adults across the United States. This federally sponsored program provides 24/7 encouragement, advice, and tips to help smokers quit.

The web link gives instructions on signing up by mobile phone and online. If your teen’s phone has a cost for individual texts, this program may not be for you. You should check with your mobile provider.

Talking can help you quit tobacco, too

If you’re not into texting and want to quit tobacco, know that talking with a quit coach at Quit 4 Life is backed up by evidence of success. Quit 4 Life includes:

Unlimited phone coaching
Free nicotine replacement products (patch & gum)
Coverage of prescription drugs to help you quit


Your EAP offers online video consultations

Cascade Centers, your employee assistance program, offers secure, completely confidential video sessions with EAP consultants. There’s no need to leave your home or office, and you get the personal connection that comes with talking face to face with someone who’s qualified help you resolve work or family problems. Click here for more on this telehealth service from Cascade Centers.


Don't drink and drive - you've got a ticket to ride

Cascade Centers is giving the gift of a free taxi ride as its holiday gift to PEBB members. Cascade aims to deter individuals from driving impaired and encourages everyone to plan ahead before embarking on their holiday festivities. To ensure safety this holiday season, Cascade will reimburse the cost of a taxi ride now through Jan. 1, 2013. Click here to download Cascade's information flyer on this gift. To be reimbursed, mail your receipt to: Cascade EAP, 7180 SW Fir Loop, Portland, OR 97223 (a copy of your receipt is required to be reimbursed). Include your name, address, city, state, zip, telephone number and employer. One way only, within your city limits. You will receive a check within 7 working days. Click here to download Cascade's flyer on this gift.