|
|
Issue No. 83
|
March 17, 2015
|
|
|
|
|
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Ice and rain have covered the state, now yielding to sunshine. So has the month of March come in like a lion or like a lamb?
With March being such a changeable month, in which we can see warm spring-like temperatures or late-season snowstorms, you can understand how the old saying might hold true in some instances.
Relative, the changing state of insurance and health care has many feeling overwhelmed. Thankfully, as a member participant with Texas Ag Coop Trust, you are a partner in decision making and you are partnered with a thriving coverage provider.
March arrived like a lion? Healthcare arrived...
It is all a matter of perspective. Keeping YOU the priority. Keeping YOUR NEEDS in perspective. With TACT, YOU are our business. How can we help?
Interesting March Lore:
1. A dry March and a wet May? Fill barns and bays with corn and hay.
 2. As it rains in March so it rains in June.
3. March winds and April showers? Bring forth May flowers.
You are a partner in health care decision making and you are partnered with a coverage
provider that is thriving.
Now serving ALL of Texas Agriculture -
Contact us for more information
TACT - Dedicated Insurance Professionals
you know and trust...like Family.
|
|
Who? How? Get to Know Us!
Who is behind the scenes? How does it all get done?
 You just received a letter with the title EOB. At the bottom is a column with the phrase, "patient responsibility". There is an amount. Why is there an amount? You remember writing a check at the physician's office. What did that cover - clearly not enough. Who can I talk to about this?
Get to know Karen Worth, TACT's Vice President of Operations. Karen's primary responsibility is working with Texas Ag Benefit Administrators (TABA) handling in-network claims, documentation and negotiating for out-of-network claims.
"Formerly, I worked with what TACT members will remember as Caprock," says Worth. "But, I also worked with ICON in third party administration and, have actually been with TACT and its members from the beginning."
TACT's recent move, bringing services in-house and becoming all-inclusive may be a new concept to members but the concept is completely familiar to Worth who has actually worked in the self-funded world for more than 20 years.
"The goal with self-funding is to keep costs down," she notes. "And, TACT is doing just that!" Worth continues, "Reducing overhead allows the company to give back to the members, but more, you will find that care is actually better because the claims/funding entity is part of the group."
So, when that EOB arrives and the "explanation" needs explanation, it's Worth who gladly accepts your call. "When I am on the other end of the line, a member is probably in need of clarification or help with care they are seeking." Worth offers assistance in trying to keep care in-network, looking at deductibles and offering guidance toward savings and processing claims.
Service and return response are the most recognizable change members will find with TABA operating under the TACT umbrella.
"Personal service and attention to need, you are a face, not a number and we are a friend, not an automated system," says Worth. "You are not lost in the mix of other participants. You know TACT, you're getting to know TABA. You have questions and we want to hear from you!"
 
|
|
March is National Save
Your Vision Month
 For many people, good vision means good eye health, but that may not always be the case. Regular eye exams can catch problems before it's too late.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends making an appointment for an eye exam. It is an essential step toward preserving vision and keeping eyes healthy and there is no better time than NOW! - Save Your Vision Month.
By 2020, 43 million Americans will be at risk for significant vision loss or blindness from age-related eye diseases, such ascataracts, diabetic
retinopathy, glaucoma and macular degeneration - an increase of more than 50 percent over the current number of Americans with these diseases. Despite the statistics, many Americans are more concerned about weight gain or back pain than they are vision loss.
The first step in preventing vision loss is to get a baseline eye exam at the age of 40. This is the age when early signs of eye disease and changes in vision may first occur.
Vision Coverage - Part of your Insurance Package!
TACT has partnered with VSP to offer all TACT members a vision benefits program. VSP Group provides group vision care benefit plans through a nationwide network of private practice and retail optical providers.
Helping people see. That is VSP. As the only national not-for-profit vision care company, members come first.
VSP invests in the things you value most like the best care at the lowest out-of-pocket costs. YOU are the focus. VSP - it's easy to see why they are consumers' #1 choice in vision care.
Vision Care - You are Covered! Take advantage!
If you have questions, call the TACT office.
We are happy to help!
|
HHS Invests In Enhancing Domestic Preparedness
Efforts for Ebola
Further progress in providing emergency funding for states and health facilities
Courtesy - HHS.gov
 The Department of Health and Human Services released a new funding opportunity announcement (FOA): the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) Ebola Preparedness and Response Activities. This funding opportunity will award a total of $194,500,000 to states and other grantees for Ebola health care system preparedness and response and the development of a regional Ebola treatment strategy.
This funding, in addition to the Ebola emergency funds that will soon be awarded through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) program, provides a total investment of $339,500,000 to enhance state, local and health care system preparedness for Ebola through the emergency appropriations passed with bipartisan support in Congress in December 2014. These funds build on gains that have been made in health care and public health preparedness efforts over the past decade through the HPP and PHEP cooperative agreements with states.
"I'd like to thank cities, states, and hospitals across the country and the public health community for stepping up and taking action," said HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Dr. Nicole Lurie. "We are building on the work we've already done and further investing in domestic preparedness to protect the public's health from Ebola, as well as boosting preparedness for many other types of health threats."
Since last fall, the United States has strengthened domestic preparedness and response efforts. State and local public health officials, with technical assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and ASPR, collaborated with hospital officials across the U.S. to increase domestic capacity to care for patients with Ebola.
Important lessons were also learned during the response effort. Safety of health care workers must be foremost in health care system preparedness and response activities; the care of Ebola patients is clinically complex and demanding; and early case recognition is critical for preventing spread and improving outcomes. Assuring that Ebola patients are safely and well cared for in the U.S. health care system and that frontline providers are trained to recognize and isolate a person with suspected Ebola are the cornerstones of the Hospital Preparedness Program Ebola funding announcement.
Through the Hospital Preparedness Program Ebola funding announcement, HHS seeks to build upon the tiered approach outlined in HHS' Interim Guidance for U.S. Hospital Preparedness for Patients under Investigation or with Confirmed Ebola Virus Disease: A Framework for a Tiered Approach, to establish a nationwide, regional treatment network for Ebola and other infectious diseases. This approach balances geographic need, differences in institutional capabilities, and accounts for the potential risk of needing to care for an Ebola patient. It builds on Congress' call for a regional strategy and also recognizes the tremendous work done by cities, states and hospitals. This network will consist of:
- Up to ten regional Ebola and other special pathogen treatment centers, including one hospital in each of the ten HHS regions from among those that have already been designated by their state health officials to serve as Ebola Treatment Centers and have been assessed by CDC-led Rapid Ebola Preparedness (REP) teams. These facilities will have enhanced capabilities to receive a confirmed Ebola patient.
- State or jurisdiction Ebola Treatment Centers that can safely care for patients with Ebola as needed.
- Assessment hospitals that can safely receive and isolate a person under investigation for Ebola and care for the person until an Ebola diagnosis can be confirmed or ruled out and until discharge or transfer are completed.
- Frontline health care facilities that can rapidly identify and triage patients with relevant exposure history and signs or symptoms compatible with Ebola and coordinate patient transfer to an Ebola assessment hospital.
The Hospital Preparedness Program Ebola funding opportunity will provide funding to all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and select metropolitan jurisdictions to support health care facilities that are capable of serving as regional Ebola and other special pathogen treatment centers, Ebola Treatment Centers and assessment hospitals for their states or jurisdictions.
The funding will also support health care coalitions to prepare frontline hospitals, emergency medical services agencies, and the overall health care system. As with past preparedness grants, states and other awardees have appropriate flexibility in how funding is distributed to community-level healthcare coalitions and local jurisdictions.
Additionally, to date, four non-federal hospitals have cared for one or more patients with Ebola. Congress provided HHS with the authority to reimburse hospitals using Ebola emergency funding for the care of Ebola patients not covered by health insurance and workers compensation programs, HHS is developing the mechanism for that process.
HHS is the principal federal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. To learn more the department's efforts to protect against Ebola, visit www.cdc.gov/Ebola and for more information on department's emergency preparedness and response efforts for all hazards see www.phe.gov.
Ebola Emergency Funding -- HPP and PHEP State-by-State Funding Allocations
Healthcare news such as this can be found on our Facebook Page!
|
USDA Gives Farmers More Time to Update Acres, Yields
Courtesy agweb.com
 Farmers now have until March 31 to update their yields and reallocate base acres with the Farm Service Agency.
The deadline for farmers to submit that information to their local FSA office has passed, but the USDA announced that it would extend that deadline until March 31.
"This is an important decision for producers, because these programs provide financial protection against unexpected changes in the marketplace," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Producers are working to make the best decision they can. And we're working to ensure that they've got the time, the information, and the opportunities to have those final conversations, review their data, and to visit the Farm Service Agency to make those decisions."
It makes March 31 a key date for farmers. It is the same day as producers must pick either ARC or PLC for each of their FSA farms.
Many had suspected that the USDA would have to extend one or more deadlines for these new farm bill programs. As of Feb. 20, just seven days before the deadline, fewer than half of all farmers had updated their yields and reallocated their acreage, according to comments by Secretary Vilsack. While speaking at the Commodity Classic in Arizona, Vilsack said that nearly half a million producers have made their PLC/ARC elections.
Read agriculture news on
our Facebook Page!
|
|
national save your vision month
Research Offers Advancements in Children's Eye Exams
Courtesy Baylor Health -
Picture a toddler getting his first eye exam. He's seated in a strange room, with strange instruments and strange bright lights. He can't sit still or open his eyes long enough for that diagnostic poof of air -especially if he has trouble seeing anyway, as children with achromatopsia do.
But according to research from the Baylor Visual Function Testing Center, future little ones might not have to squirm in their seats during routine eye exams. The research, which was published in JAMA Ophthalmology, explores a new non-invasive technology that's kind of like a handheld CT scanner for the eye.
The technology, known as spectral-domain optical coherence tomographic imaging (SD-OCT), helps pediatric ophthalmologists detect achromatopsia by studying retina thickness. It can scan the structure of the eye from a distance, without getting too close to the young patient.
That non-invasive approach is a step up from previous methods, when specialists diagnosed based on age, family history and the standard eye exam procedure (air poof included).
Also known as "day blindness," achromatopsia is a rare condition that causes bad vision in daylight, color blindness and shaking eyes. It affects one in 40,000 U.S. children and tends to run in families. Worst of all, it's not easy to predict in young children because the current diagnostic tools were made for grown-ups.
"It has been very difficult to understand the retinal structure of children with achromatopsia because young children are known to be uncooperative during eye examinations designed for the adults," said Yuquan Wen, PhD, scientific director of the Baylor Visual Function Testing Center. He, along with researchers at the Casey Eye Institute of Oregon Health & Science University, helped develop the study.
As part of the research, investigators studied 18 patients, each of them about 4 years old. Half of the participants suffered from achromatopsia and the other half (control) had normal visual function. By using the SD-OCT, researchers produced 3D high-definition imaging of the kids' retinas, which is the back part of the eye responsible for creating visual pictures. In many ways, it's like the film in a camera.
Through those images, they found that the achromatopsia patients had significantly thinner-than-normal retinas, as much as 17 percent thinner than the control participants. The findings imply the importance of studying a child's retinal thickness when looking for achromatopsia.
Researchers also noted that, in young children, those retinal qualities seemed milder than older patients with the same achromatopsia diagnosis. This could mean a possible therapeutic window to help patients while they're still young.
"We think that retinal thickness measurement is a more reliable predictor than age alone or genotype alone," Dr. Wen said. "With the knowledge of retinal thickness in young children with achromaptosia, smarter clinical studies could be designed and monitored based on real structural changes of the retina in conjunction with the visual function change."
As those new studies take shape, they'll likely include a form of gene therapy that involves special therapies to make up for the non-functioning genes the patients were born with. Gene therapy has emerged in several clinical trials for blinding eye diseases and likely will continue to do so well into the future.
Before the availability of the handheld SD-OCT, pediatric ophthalmologists had only simple tools and instruments (all of them designed for adults) to detect achromatopsia in children. But based on these findings, the handheld SD-OCT could join those standard tools very soon - as well as be useful in pediatric eye exams in general, Dr. Wen said.
And the squirming kids who endure those eye exams? Like the first-time toddler, things won't be so tough for them.
To read featured health news
|
|
Refer Us!
Click above to learn more or
to contact the TACT office. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Facebook Feature
Find us on Facebook and
access more detailed,
industry-related information.
Interact with us!
We're waiting to talk to you!
|
|
Contact Us
Texas Ag Coop Trust
915 Austin Street
Levelland, TX 79336
806-747-7894
|
|
Texas Ag Coop Trust
Officers, Board of Trustees
Kimberly Tullo-Holcomb
TACT Executive Director
Lubbock, TX
Jim Turner, Chairman
Dalhart Consumers Fuel Association
Dalhart, TX
Bret Brown, Secretary/Treasurer
Ag Producers Co-op
Sunray, TX
Ben Boerner
Texas Grain & Feed Assn.
Fort Worth, TX
Craig Rohrbach
Parmer County Cotton Growers
Farwell, TX
Dean Sasser
Farmers Coop Elevator
Levelland, TX
Tony Williams
Texas Cotton Ginners' Association
Austin, TX
Paul Wilson
United Cotton Growers
Levelland, TX
|
|
Texas Ag Coop Trust
is endorsed by:
Texas Grain & Feed
Association
Texas Cotton Ginners Association
 Texas Coop Marketing Exchange
Texas Corn Producers
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Effective April 1
Want to know how to do your part in keeping your Health Insurance Premiums from Increasing next year?
Use the In-Network Providers in Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)! PHCS contracts with physicians, hospitals and ancillary services (lab, equipment, sleep studies, radiology centers, etc.) at a discounted rate. These providers can be found by visiting the TACT website (www.TxAgCoop.com) and clicking on the "Find your Provider" link, enter your group number and click "find my provider." This will provide you with a link to obtain a list of all PHCS in network providers.
There is a very good reason why your employer has chosen PHCS as your PPO provider. Cost Savings. your employer is self-funding the employee health plan; in simple terms this means your employer is paying for every claim that employees and the covered dependents incur. When your employer is considering next year's health plan, and if there are many out of network claims that cost the health plan a considerable amount of money, the employer has no choice but to raise premiums or reduce benefits.
Example:
If you go to an in-network radiology facility for an MRI, the contracted rate and total cost is $639.73
If you go to an out of network radiology facility, there is no contracted rate and the total cost is $2,850
Let's say your deductible is $500 and your plan pays 80%. (With your out of network benefits - guess what - you and your employer will end up paying more of the cost.)
Make sure that you and your physician use PHCS providers. You can go to the TACT website (www.TxAgCoop.com) and click on the "Find your Provider" link, enter your group number and click "find my provider." This will provide you with a link to a list of in network providers with Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS).
If everyone would do their part in keeping costs down, you might be pleasantly surprised at health plan renewal time!
****see your office manager for New ID cards****
If you have questions or need assistance locating an in network provider,
PLEASE CALL Texas Ag Benefit Administrators at 806-568-2600.
TACT - Dedicated Insurance Professionals
you know and trust...like Family.
Next Issue: March 31, 2015
Newsletter Archives - click here
|
|
|
