LabCorp comes on board

Blue Access - a new HMO blue feature

Change in health coverage for eligible grandchildren

Check coverage before you retire

Organ donation made easy for all

Perception is not reality

LabCorp comes on board
On Sept. 1, Laboratory Corporation of America, or LabCorp, became the exclusive outpatient clinical laboratory for HMO Blue Texas. Quest Laboratories and CPL, Inc., provided lab services, but they are no longer in the HMO Blue Texas provider network. Only LabCorp will handle and analyze lab work.

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Blue Access - new HMO blue feature
A new online HMO Blue feature, Blue Access, lets members get information.

The feature allows members to use Blue Access to get information about their medical records directly from HMO Blue Texas at www.bcbstx.com/members. They can also request additional plan member identification card, replacements for lost cards and confirm who is covered.

POS members can check claim payments, get explanations of benefits, and request an e-mail notification when a claim is paid. All members can ask HMO Blue Texas questions and receive answers. Access to the Mayo Clinic Web site and its resources, including personal health assessments, is included.

You should receive a letter from HMO blue by the end of September with your personal identification code. Remember your code. You'll need it each time you use Blue Access.

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Change in health coverage for eligible grandchildren

HMO Blue no longer automatically adds newborn dependent grandchildren to medical plans. A grandchild is covered from birth only if the employee submits a benefits change form and other paperwork within 31 days of the birth.

If grandparents don’t submit the paperwork within 31 days, there is a 90-day waiting period after it is submitted. Then, HMO coverage is effective on the first or 16th of the month, whichever comes first, after 90 days.

If POS members don’t apply within 31 days after the birth, they may not apply until the next open enrollment in the spring. Coverage is effective May 1.

For those who submit the paperwork after 31 days, the expenses the grandchild incurred before the 90-day waiting period is over will not be covered.

If the baby is not discharged from the hospital with the mother, paperwork must be submitted within 31 days to cover the baby’s bills.

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Check coverage before you retire
If you are planning to retire and don’t have coverage, apply at least 90 days before you retire. HMO coverage is effective after a 90-day waiting period. Life insurance is effective after life-insurance company approval.

You may apply for dental and POS coverage only during open enrollment in spring 2004.

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Organ donation made easy for all
LifeGift Organ Donation Center, serving Houston and 30 surrounding counties, wants you to become a partner with the Workplace Partnership for Life. The campaign encourages workers and their employers to support organ, tissue, marrow and blood donations.

LifeGift is part of the National Organ Procurement and Transplant Network.

In the United States, 80,000 people wait desperately for life-saving organ transplants, and 5,000 will likely die waiting for a transplant this year.

Visit www.organdonor.gov and complete a sign-up form online or print one, complete it and send it to 5615 Kirby Dr., Suite 900, Houston, Tex. 77005, or fax it to (713) 737-8100. For more information, visit www.lifegift.org or call (713) 523-GIFT.

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Perception is not reality
You are what you eat, not what you think you eat. The director of the University of Washington’s nutritional sciences program says most people in his food intake studies are wrong about what they eat and drink.

For example, “People will say, ‘Oh, yeah, I drink orange juice every day,’” said Adam Drewnowski. Yet, data of what actually passes between their lips doesn’t agree with the words that come out.

Men tend to overestimate how many fruits and vegetables they consume, and women underreport how many sweets they eat, Drewnowski said. A U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of 5,700 adults reveals the same discrepancy between what Americans eat and what they say they eat.

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