CalCPA ProtectPlus

How-to Understand Your New Invoice

This is a short presentation that covers the new invoices provided by CalCPA ProtectPlus, and how to understand them. Click the image below to view the presentation.

Presentation Highlights:

• Format
• New Invoice – December 15th
• Employee Monthly Premiums
• Benefit Totals & Payments
• Payment Stubs

Contact Info

With everything that’s gone on this year we know it’s been hard, and we at CalCPA ProtectPlus just wanted to thank you for all of your support as members.

We have undergone a lot of changes (new administrators, new website features, new plans for Open Enrollment) this year, but we know they are for the best, and mainly to make your experience with us that much better.

We have many things to be thankful for this year, and you are one of them. All of us here at CalCPA ProtectPlus want to wish you the best this holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Class I Transplants are any of the following: liver, heart, heart-lung, kidney, kidney-pancreas or bone marrow, including autologous bone marrow transplant, peripheral stem cell treatment and similar procedures.

Banyan Administrator for CalCPA ProtectPlus

Here is an introductory presentation to Banyan Administrators, the new administrators of CalCPA ProtectPlus, and some highlights of the improvements you can expect to see over the next couple of months as we make this transition. Click image below to view presentation.

Presentation Highlights:
Improvements

• Simplified enrollment process
• Improved program invoice design
• Enhanced communication capabilities – new web features
• Streamlined administration leveraging web-based technology

What’s Next

• Detailed Administrative Guide
• Annual Open Enrollment Communications

New Contact Info

Rosacea is a skin disorder that affects millions of Americans.  It targets the cheeks, nose, forehead and chin.  It’s most commonly experienced as chronic redness or blushing.  Without treatment or preventive care, Rosacea can result in severe redness of the skin, bumps, pimples, and itching.  In the most severe cases, a build up of excess tissue (thick and bumpy) on the cheeks or nose may occur.

Rosacea has also been known to affect the eyes, causing chronic redness and irritation. Your best bet when dealing with Rosacea is first to understand the condition and your skin.  Understanding what triggers irritation (weather, caffeine, hot water, etc.) can help you be more effective at preventing future flareups!

What are the Symptoms of Rosacea?

1. Flushing and facial redness that may become more persistent.
2. Dry and flaky skin.
3. Acne-like bumps or pimples on the skin.
4. Telangiectasia, or red lines in the face caused by enlarged blood vessels.
5. Stinging or burning sensations like a mild sunburn.
6. Application of cleansers, cosmetics, or moisturizers may increase the irritation.
7. Rhinophyma, or nasal bumps or areas of thickened skin.

Easy-to-use, clear, and helpful, the redesigned CPA ProtectPlus website offers a wide variety of new tools addressing the insurance needs and benefits questions of CalCPA members.

Give these new features a try!

Plan Selector Tool. Analyzing your responses to a short series of questions, this new selector tool identifies three health plans suited to your needs. You can click through to each of the selected plans and view a description of its benefits. In addition, the tool displays a graph comparing the relative premiums of all available ProtectPlus plans.

Member Satisfaction Survey. Whether you are a current or former ProtectPlus plan participant, we want your feedback, and we’ve made it easy for you. Just click on the member satisfaction tab to let us know about your experience and what is important to you.

Firm Administrator’s Tab. For firms that wish to manage some of their own ProtectPlus account functions, this tab will soon be the portal to the firm’s own self-management site. It already features a series of important links, including a twelve-page PDF Administrative Guide with contact information, payment information, rules and recent changes. The tab also provides links to a host of PDF forms (enrollment forms, claims forms, the new 2010 rate sheets, HIPAA information, prescription drug preauthorization forms, plan descriptions, brochures, and the 2010 ProtectPlus EZ Guide). A series of multi-media E-Presentations give administrators information on how the ProtectPlus program operates. Finally, a Contact Information option has links to an insurance glossary and FAQs, as well as a list of companies, institutions, and people who can help with your insurance needs.

Blog, Twitter, and Facebook Links. Expand your network while making sure you get the news from CalCPA as it happens. ProtectPlus is blogging, tweeting, and networked.

Ask the Sales Manager Link. Too busy to pick up the phone? Want a quote? Have a question but it’s too complicated to leave in a phone message? Just fill in the online form and CalCPA sales manager Tom Kowalski will get back to you ASAP.

The CalCPA Daily Dose Widget link brings you top news items that refresh daily. You’ll receive late-breaking news about health and medicine, stocks, sports, business and finance.

Revised Quote Tool. You can now choose to get a quote as a guest, or you can create an account. If you choose to create an account, the system automatically saves each quote you request so you can return at any time to view prior quotes. On each visit you can get  a detailed quote with the cost for each employee, or you can get a “quick view” premium summary.

You can simply call Anthem Blue Cross customer service at 888-209-7847 or login to Anthem Blue Cross and click on Search for a Provider outside of California.

Open enrollment is going on now through December 31st. See why so many CalCPA member firms choose CalCPA ProtectPlus. Each of our plans have been developed through research, member feedback, and collaboration with leading national service providers to deliver an attractive balance of benefits and savings. And because these are proprietary plans, we can provide them to our member firms at highly competitive group rates.

You may choose to offer your employees almost any combination of the CalCPA ProtectPlus plans. This exclusive coverage is a great enticement for attracting and retaining top-level talent to your firm.

Here is a quick look at our plans.

To find the plan that be fits your needs, please use our Plan Selector Tool.

• Protect 10 $10 copay, 10% coinsurance, 
individual deductible $250/Family $500. More details

• Protect 15 $15 copay, 20% coinsurance, Individual deductible $250/Family $500, the first 6 in-network office visits per calendar year are exempt from annual deductible. More details

• Protect 25 $25 copay, 30% coinsurance, Individual deductible $500/Family $1,000,the first 6 in-network office visits per calendar year are exempt from annual deductible. More details

• Protect 35 $35 copay, 40% coinsurance, Individual deductible $500/Family $1,000, the first 6 in-network office visits per calendar year are exempt from annual deductible. More details

• Protect 45 $45 copay, 50% coinsurance, no in-network deductible. More details

• Protect HSA 1500 $1,500 Individual deductible $1,500/Family $3,000, 30% coinsurance, $4,500 Individual out-of-pocket maximum. More details

• Protect HSA 2500 $2,500 Individual deductible $2,500/Family $5,000, -0- coinsurance, $2,500 Individual out-of-pocket maximum. More details

• Protect HSA 2850 $2,850 Individual deductible $2850/Family $5,650, 30% coinsurance, $5,500 Individual/ out-of-pocket maximum. More details

• HMO Value 80 $15 copay, no deductible, 20% coinsurance for most covered expenses. More details

• HMO Advantage 100 $10 copay, no deductible, no additional charge for most covered expenses. More details

Though this presentation was done last year, the lasting message is still relevant.  Here, Ken Cook presets what he and the Environmental Working Group discovered about the 287 toxic chemicals found in one of the most “vulnerable demographics” on the planet.  Interestingly, these toxic chemicals were found in the most unassuming and frankly shocking place.  It’s a good presentation, I think it draws attention to the fact that we need to be hyper-aware of the environment  around us, and how exposure to it can happen in the most unexpected yet devastating ways.

Kid-Safe Chemicals Act: 10 Americans @ Yahoo! Video

Ambulatory Surgical Center is a freestanding outpatient surgical facility. It must be licensed as an outpatient clinic according to state and local laws and must meet all requirements of an outpatient clinic providing surgical services. It must also meet accreditation standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations or the Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care.

This article by Reuters, was published in the New York Times Saturday October 8th, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After a landmark win in the House of Representatives, President Barack Obama’s push for healthcare reform faces a difficult path in the Senate amid divisions in his own Democratic Party on how to proceed.

On a 220-215 vote, including the support of one Republican and opposition from 39 Democrats, the House backed a bill late on Saturday that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.

The battle now shifts to the Senate, where work on Obama’s top domestic priority has been stalled for weeks as Democratic leader Harry Reid searches for an approach that can win the 60 votes he needs to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.

“Take this baton and bring this effort to the finish line,” Obama urged senators on Sunday in an appearance at the White House, saying passage of healthcare reform would represent “their finest moment in public service.” Democrats have no margin for error — they control exactly 60 seats in the 100-member Senate. Some moderate Democrats have rebelled at Reid’s plan to include a new government-run insurance program, known as the “public option,” in the bill.

Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, renewed his promise on Sunday to help Republicans block a final vote if the bill contains the government-run insurance option backed by Senate liberals. “If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,” Lieberman said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Republicans and some moderate Democrats have balked at the House bill’s $1 trillion price tag, new taxes on the wealthy and what they call a heavy-handed government intrusion in the private sector. The overhaul would lead to the biggest changes in the $2.5 trillion healthcare system — which accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy — since the 1965 creation of the Medicare government health insurance program for the elderly.

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Mental Or Nervous Disorders for the purposes of this plan, are conditions that affect thinking and the ability to figure things out, perception, mood and behavior, including severe mental disorders. A mental or nervous disorder is recognized primarily by symptoms or signs that appear as distortions of normal thinking, distortions of the way things are perceived (e.g., seeing or hearing things that are not there), moodiness, sudden and/or extreme changes in mood, depression, and/or unusual behavior such as depressed behavior or highly agitated or manic behavior.

According to California Department of Public Health (CDPH) the vaccine for H1N1, also known as ”swine” flu has arrived and will continue to arrive weekly throughout the fall and winter months. Here are some of the locations where the shots will be available, but are currently only providing general seasonal flu shots.

• Walgreens (H1N1 flu information provided)
• CVS Pharmacy (H1N1 flu information provided)
• Wal-Mart Flu Shot Clinics (H1N1 flu information provided)
• Rite-Aid (H1N1 flu information provided)
• Safeway (H1N1 flu information provided)

Local Public Health Clinics provides a full listing of California Local Public Health Departments. (Click on your city or county to go to the county web page where you will find current information about H1N1 flu vaccinations offered by the local public health clinic) – via CDPH.

For additional questions call: H1N1 Flu Hotline at 1-888-865-0564, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.