Benefits Bulletin
Human Resource Services
January 2003
Vol. 16, No. 3
Save Time and Money with New
Mail Order Prescription Service
The new year brings a new way to fill
your ongoing prescriptions. All Purdue
medical plans now include a mail order
prescription drug service that can save
you time and money on your ongoing
prescription medications.
Save Time
Instead of making multiple trips to your
local pharmacy, the mail order pharmacy
comes to you. The service delivers your
prescriptions to your home or office in
plain, tamper-evident packaging. You can
receive up to a 90-day supply of your
medication, and standard shipping is free.
Save Money
When you buy your medications through
the mail order service, you’ll save 5 percent
on your coinsurance. You’ll pay 15 percent
coinsurance for generic drugs, 25 percent
for preferred brand name drugs, and 45
percent for non-preferred brand name
drugs.
Dependable Service
For your safety and convenience, the mail
order service provides the following:
• Reviews every prescription for
possible drug interactions with other
medications you’re taking
• Sends information with every order to
help you properly use your prescription
• Provides documentation to file for
your flexible spending account
• Keeps a pharmacist available 24 hours
a day to answer your questions via a
toll-free number
• Offers convenient Internet and refillby-phone services so you can order
refills any time, any day
Getting Started
AdvanceRx.com is the mail order service
for Incentive PPO and Purdue 500 participants. To switch a prescription you are
currently filling at a neighborhood
pharmacy to the mail order service, call the
FastStart Program at 1 (888) 216-5022.
They’ll change your prescription to the
mail order service for you in three easy
steps.
Express Scripts provides the mail order
service for Purdue Managed Care participants. For help with the service, call the
customer service center at 1 (877) 805-4111.
2003 Medical Plan Enrollment Statistics
Here’s a report of the number of employees who selected
each of the medical plan options offered for 2003.
• Incentive PPO ................................................ 3,851
• Purdue Managed Care .................................... 3,716
• Purdue 500 ...................................................... 2,062
• Federal Health Plans
(Civil Service appointments only) ..................... 88
• Humana Premier
(Calumet campus only) ...................................... 40
• No Coverage
(Covered elsewhere) .................................... 1,089
Total ................................................................... 10,846
Incentive PPO and Purdue 500 Participants
Save Money with Primary Care Benefit
Have a skin rash? Knee been bothering
you? Are your eyes red and itchy? Before
you make an appointment with a specialist,
consider seeing your primary care doctor.
It’s a move that could save you time and
money.
financial advantages, too. To encourage
you to use your primary care physician
whenever possible, the Incentive PPO and
Purdue 500 medical plans offer a special
Primary Care Benefit.
Let’s say you’re an Incentive PPO participant and visit your primary care doctor in
January about a troublesome knee. The
doctor treats the condition and charges
you $60 for the office visit. Because your
doctor is in the PHCS network, you pay
just $6 for the visit.
Important Partnership
If instead you make an appointment with a
orthopedist, your office visit charge might
be $90. If you have not met your deductible yet, the office visit charge will apply
toward your deductible, leaving the entire
$90 to be paid from your own pocket.
Primary care doctors are trained to treat a
wide range of health problems without
referring you to a specialist, who will
usually be more expensive than your
primary care physician will be.
By developing a relationship with a
primary care physician, you’ll have a
partner who is familiar with your background, needs, and personality should
you ever have a serious illness or injury.
Primary care physicians can help identify
the most appropriate specialist for a
particular condition, help coordinate care
among multiple specialists, watch for
potential harmful drug interactions, and
provide appropriate follow-up care.
Keep More of Your Money
In addition to the care and relationship
benefits you can experience by using a
primary care physician, you stand to reap
Under the two medical plans, the Primary
Care Benefit applies to office visits with
any of the following in-network doctors:
Under the benefit, you pay no deductible
when you use an in-network primary care
physician. Instead, Incentive PPO
participants pay just 10 percent of the
office visit charge when using a PHCS
primary care doctor and only 20 percent
when using a NETPro doctor. Purdue 500
participants pay 30 percent when using a
PHCS primary care doctor.
• Pediatrician
• Family practice physician
• General practitioner
• Internist
• OB/GYN
In addition, the supporting physician’s
assistants and nurse practitioners working
for these doctors are included in the
Primary Care Benefit. If you have questions about the Primary Care Benefit,
please call 49-41684 or 49-49810.
Free Lab Services When You Use Participating Labs
Remember that for 2003, lab services
will cost you nothing if you use a
participating lab.
Incentive PPO
and Purdue 500
Participating labs include all PHCS labs
and the offices of all PHCS doctors, if
they use a PHCS lab. Local PHCS labs
include:
• Mid America Clinical Lab, Unity
Healthcare facility, Creasy Lane,
Lafayette
• Follas Lab facility, 134 W. State Street,
West Lafayette
• PHCS physician offices, if they use a
PHCS lab
• Pathologists Associated, Sagamore
Surgical facility, Concord Road,
Lafayette
Also participating:
• All Arnett Clinic labs
If you have questions about the free lab
benefit, please call 49-49810 or 49-41684.
Purdue Managed Care
• Lab services are free if you use
any Arnett Clinic lab.
Keep Up with Which Doctors and Facilities
Are in Your Plan's Network
Regardless of which Purdue medical plan
you selected for 2003, it’s going to be
important for you to know whether the
doctor or medical facility you’re using is
part of your plan’s network. For all 2003
plans, your benefits coverage will be
different if you receive care from an innetwork provider than if you receive care
from an out-of-network provider.
Web sites are available to help you keep
up-to-date with which medical providers
are participating in your plan’s network.
Follow the instructions below to find
provider information.
PHCS Network Providers
PHCS is a national network consisting of
thousands of providers across the United
States, and it is the primary provider
network for the Incentive PPO plan at the
West Lafayette campus. PHCS also serves
the Purdue 500 plan. PHCS is working
hard to recruit more providers to support
these Purdue medical plans and regularly
updates its Web site to add new providers.
To find PHCS providers:
• Visit the PHCS Web site at
www.phcs.com, or
• Call PHCS at 1 (800) 944-5184
When you visit the PHCS Web site, follow
these steps as you go through the guided
search criteria:
1) Click on the blue Find a Provider
button.
2) Click on Start New Search at the
bottom of the page, and complete the
information.
3) Click on Continue to Build Search at
the bottom of the page.
4) Complete the search information. For
Step 4, use the Preferred Provider
Organization (PPO) selection that is
preset.
5) Choose either Find Provider Now for
full information about all types of
providers OR choose Continue to
Build Search to look for particular
specialists within the providers.
Several doctors intend to join PHCS.
However, it can take several weeks from
the time PHCS receives a doctor’s application until the doctor’s participation in the
network becomes effective. If you’re in
doubt about whether your doctor is
participating, it’s best to call the doctor’s
office and ask if the doctor plans to join
PHCS. If so, keep an eye on the PHCS
Web site. Once your doctor is active with
the network, his or her name will appear on
the site, and you’ll begin getting innetwork benefits on the doctor’s services.
NETPro Providers
NETPro is a smaller, regional network that
covers Lafayette, West Lafayette, Indianapolis, and other surrounding areas.
NETPro is the secondary network for the
West Lafayette campus’ Incentive PPO
plan and also serves the Purdue 500 plan.
For more information about NETPro:
• Visit the NETPro Web site at
www.indcaremgmt.com/np/index.htm,
or
• Call NETPro at 448-1864 or
1 (800) 728-0327
When you visit the NETPro Web site, click
on Providers at the bottom of the page,
and then click on NETPro - Preferred
Provider Network Listing.
Additional Providers for
the Purdue 500 Plan
For the Purdue 500 plan, the Arnett Clinic
facilities are also participating providers.
Purdue Managed Care
For information about using in-network
and out-of-network doctors and facilities
through the Purdue Managed Care
program:
• Visit the Purdue Managed Care Web
site at www.purduemanagedcare.com,
or
• Call Arnett Health Plans at 448-7440 or
1 (888) 448-7440.
Wausau Web Site Lets You
Check on Your Claims, Print Reports
Now you can check your Incentive PPO or
Purdue 500 benefits and claim status any
time of the day or night by logging onto
www.wausaubenefits.com. With the online
inquiry, you can view:
• Claim information
• Eligibility and benefits information
• ID card order form
Step 2: Click on Member Information
Center.
Step 3: Click on First Time User Registration in the upper left corner.
Step 4: Complete the User Registration
information. Enter the group
number as 76190024. Then
complete steps 2, 3, and 4 and
click Submit.
Complete Security
You can rest assured that your benefit
information is completely secure with the
Wausau member registration process.
Your registration is electronically verified
before you can access the secure online
site, so you will be the only one able to
view your benefit information.
Step 5: Complete the remaining User
Registration information for steps
5, 6, and 7, and then click Submit.
Step 6: Review the Online Service
Agreement and click on Accept at
the top of the page.
Accessing Online Information
from Wausau Benefits
Step 7: Choose Your Accounts to review
your claim activity or choose
Health Information for healthrelated topics.
Step 1: Go to www.wausaubenefits.com
and click the Online Services
button on the left side of the
screen.
That’s all you need to do to log on for the
first time. You’re now registered to view
your claims information by logging in and
entering your username and password.
Questions?
If you have questions or experience
problems using Wausau Online Member
Services, please contact Wausau Benefits
technical support at 1 (866) 922-8266.
Wausau Benefits advises that its Web site
is best viewed using Microsoft Internet
Explorer version 5.0 or higher as your
browser.
Will You Be 65 Before November 1, 2003?
You Can Collect Social Security While You Work
"If your 65th birthday is sometime before
November 1, 2003, you will able to collect
Social Security pension benefits this year
even though you're still working," according to Bill Pratt, Purdue benefits counselor.
You're eligible for Social Security benefits
starting with the month you reach your full
retirement age. For people born in 1938,
full retirement age is 65 years and 2
months.
If your earnings are
less than $30,720 by
the time you reach
your full retirement
age, you can receive
Social Security for the
full year. If your
earnings are more
than $30,720, you
give up $1 of Social Security benefits for
each $3 you earn over $30,720.
Starting with the month you reach your full
retirement age, you're no longer subject to
the earnings limit. You will be eligible for
Social Security benefits in 2004, regardless
of how much you earn. "Social Security
does not pay benefits retroactively, so if
you'll be 65 before November 1, 2003, call
the Social Security office before the end
of January or you may lose benefits,"
says Pratt.
More Providers Join PHCS Network
The following medical providers will be participating in the PHCS network effective
February 1, 2003.
2003 PHCS is the primary network for the Incentive PPO plan at the
West Lafayette campus and also serves the Purdue 500 plan.
Mental Health
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mukesh Desai, M.D.
Christine Durbin, M.D.
Dennis Edwards, PhD.
Margaret Ingleman, ACSW,
DCSW, BCD, MSW
David Kiser, PhD., LCSW
Kermit Scott, LCSW, PC
Michael Seretny, PhD.
Rebecca Sullivan, LCSW, CCSW
3465
2550
2201
2550
Union Street, Lafayette
Kent Avenue, Suite 145, West Lafayette
Ferry Street, Lafayette
Kent Avenue, West Lafayette
126 S. Third Street, Suite 2, Lafayette
2550 Kent Avenue, Suite 1, West Lafayette
1203 Trace Twelve, West Lafayette
126 S. Third Street, Suite 2, Lafayette
OB/GYN
•
Renee Knutson, M.D.
• Joel McCuaig, M.D.
904 South Street, Lafayette
904 South Street, Lafayette
Ophthalmology
•
Steven Beck, M.D.
• Paul Kowalski, M.D.
3746 Rome Drive, Lafayette
3746 Rome Drive, Lafayette
Physical Therapy
•
Gail Dodge, RPT
200 Professional Court, Suite A, Lafayette
For a complete list of providers participating in the PHCS network, visit the PHCS Web site. Please see
page 3 of this Benefits Bulletin for the Web address and for instructions on using the site.
Want to nominate your doctor to participate in PHCS? Complete a PHCS Provider Nomination Form,
or
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