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A MedjetAssist Member Tesitmonial... |
"I am one in 50,000,000. One minute I was having a blast with my friends in Acapulco. The next I was lying unconscious on the side of the road after a truck hit our Jeep head-on. I woke up in a crowded emergency room. No one spoke English. When they took me into surgery, I had no idea what they were going to do. It was terrifying. Afterwards, the medication wasn't working and I was screaming out in agony. A friend called my mom in Toledo and she made the call to MedjetAssist. My dad had a corporate membership through work and had recently added the family. When the medical team came rushing in, I just started crying. I was so overwhelmed with happiness. They identified the severity of my injuries and gave me adequate pain medication. I was moved to my home hospital, where my family, friends and the softest bed in the world were all waiting for me. The doctors in Mexico had missed a badly broken vertebra. Had I stayed there, I could have suffered permanent damage."
Every year, 50 million people are seriously injured in automobile accidents worldwide. Many of them are hundreds of miles from the best healthcare.
"I've completed two marathons since the crash in Mexico. I'm not sure I would have been able to accomplish that had MedjetAssist not stepped in."
This MedjetAssist member was 1,787 miles from home in Acapulco, Mexico; the transport she received normally would cost $68,000, but cost her ZERO out of pocket!
Call MedjetAssist at 1-800-527-7478 and mention group #862 to receive your discounted membership rate simply for being a member of the South Carolina Dental Association. |
| Considering Practice Ownership? |
Banc of America Practice Solutions will be holding a symposium on Thursday, April 8th in Charleston at the South Carolina Aquarium. The purpose of this event will be to help those dentists who are considering practice ownership determine whether or not it is personally better for them to purchase an existing practice or to start a new one. Other items being discussed will be how to outfit and customize your new practice with the latest designs and technology, choosing your legal entity and tax planning strategy and the financing of your practice purchase or start-up.
Registration is at 6:00 p.m. and the seminar will run from 6:30-9:30 p.m. with a light dinner and beverages provided. There is a nominal cost of $29 for SCDA members and a $79 cost for non-members to join. There is no cost for MUSC residents with a valid ID card.
Give me a call at the SCDA office at 1-800-327-2598 if you'd like to join. The registration deadline is April 1st, so call today. |
| Billing Department Notice - Medical Plan |
For those members on the group medical plan, you may have recently received a note in your premium billing discussing a release form and a client pin number. Please disregard the form that reads "AUTHORIZATION FOR RELEASE OF PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION AND APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE." This form is not necessary for your practice to complete.
However, the form that reads "CLIENT CONTACT PIN # DES" is necessary to return and the purpose of this form is to ensure Mercer (the billing department) that they are speaking with a decision maker of your practice. This PIN number will help protect your practice from anyone calling Mercer claiming to be employed with your practice and requesting to make unauthorized changes to your practice's bill. |
| Government Subsidy Program Extended |
Legislation (HR 3326) extending and expanding the COBRA premium subsidy has been signed into law meaning, assistance-eligible individuals (AEIs) involuntarily terminated from employment on or before Feb. 28, 2010, can receive the subsidy. The subsidy cap will remain at 65 percent, but the maximum subsidy period will expand to 15 months. Eligibility still will be limited to people losing health coverage due to involuntary employment termination.
Extended eligibility period - the subsidy program now will cover people eligible for COBRA due to involuntary employment termination on or before Feb. 28, 2010, instead of Dec. 31, 2009. The extension includes COBRA-eligible individuals involuntarily terminated on Feb. 28, 2010, even if their COBRA begins on March 1, 2010. The law clarifies that people involuntarily terminated on or before Dec. 31, 2009, who become eligible for COBRA on Jan. 1, 2010, will be subsidy-eligible, reversing earlier guidance.
Longer subsidy period - the maximum subsidy period for AEIs - including anyone now receiving the subsidy - will be 15 months instead of just nine months. But the law doesn't change the maximum COBRA eligibility period, so people who exhaust their COBRA coverage may not be eligible for the full 15 months of subsidy.
Notices, options for AEIs who exhausted subsidy - individuals who exhausted the original nine-month subsidy period before the new law takes effect can get the subsidy for another six months (if they remain AEIs and their COBRA period hasn't ended). Employers must quickly notify AEIs who exhausted the subsidy and then dropped COBRA (or kept COBRA but paid unsubsidized premiums) that they now may pay reduced premiums for retroactive coverage (or receive credit for or reimbursement of overpayments). Notice must be given within 60 days of the AEI dropping or first overpaying for COBRA.
Other notices - employers must send notices describing the revised program to anyone eligible for the subsidy or terminated from employment (voluntarily or not) on or after Oct. 31, 2009. This notice must be given within 60 days of the law's enactment or, if later, the usual deadline for furnishing COBRA materials to individuals experiencing a COBRA qualifying event. Department of Labor sample notices and information on deadlines can be found by clicking here. | |
As always, contact me at 1-800-327-2598, ext. 100 with any questions or visit us at www.scda.org
Sincerely,
Mark K. Brown
SCDA Member Benefits Group Manager |
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