Registered Dietician

All CHP members, as well as the public, are invited to attend an exciting new series of nutrition and health classes. The classes have no charge and do not require pre-registration.

Every Monday in January, please join Capital Health Plan’s registered dietitian, Melissa Dancer-Brown, R.D., L.D./N., for these informative and entertaining sessions! There will be plenty of time for questions and answers, so come prepared with all of your nutrition curiosities. If you have questions, please call the Tallahassee Senior Center at 850-891-4000.

Time & Place: Tallahassee Senior Center, 1400 N. Monroe Street, 11 a.m. – noon

January 5, 2009: “Keeping the Resolution: Starting the New Year Right”

January 12: “Healthy Eating for Whatever Ails You: Living with Diabetes, Hypertension, Obesity or High Cholesterol”

January 19: “Eating for One or Two on a Limited Budget”

January 26: “Common Misconceptions about Nutrition: What Are Your Issues?”

Caregivers—you probably know several. You may be one. They are people caring for loved ones, usually family members. Today family caregivers provide an estimated 80% of all community care, according to the American Medical Association. Caregiving can be one of life’s most rewarding experiences: a time to be with your loved one and perhaps deepen or improve your relationship. It is an opportunity to really make a difference in someone else’s life and can be a significant period of personal and spiritual growth.

Researchers know that caregivers often neglect their own well-being and that their health is typically worse than the general population’s. The rewarding experience of helping another person sometimes replaces the priority of caring for oneself. Caregivers tend not to exercise, eat, or sleep well. And they don’t visit their own doctors. The fact (and irony) is that a caregiver cannot give the best care when overwhelmed or ill. For yourself or a caregiver friend, here are steps to stay healthy:

Establish a good relationship with your primary care physician.

Your doctor should know about your situation. He or she not only can monitor your health, but can be an advisor or liaison to helpful services. Also connect with the patient’s doctor and health plan. Caregivers often manage all phases of their charges’ health care, from medications to questions of coverage. Know how to get answers fast. For example, CHP’s Medicare Advantage programs are completely local, a plus for direct communication about Medicare (see the Advantage Primetime article).

Eat well and exercise.

Don’t fall into the snack (or fast food) trap. Keep nutritious food on hand, and keep preparation simple. Promise yourself 15 minutes of exercise a day, even if it’s walking around the house or in place. You can do that! (And you’ll soon manage more.)

Take time off.

It may not be easy, but giving yourself a break—even for an hour—is a powerful reviver.

Find Out About Resources, and Use Them.

Capital Health Plan’s Member Services can provide excellent help, and the following two umbrella organizations can supply extensive lists of resources for caregivers, from adult daycare to support groups. You are not alone!

2-1-1 Big Bend

850-224-633 or dial 2-1-1

www.211bigbend.org

Elder Care Services, 850-921-5554

www.ecsbigbend.org

In the hustle and bustle of the holidays, exercising often gets left behind in your dust. While walking around a grocery or mall is exercise, does it unstress you? Hardly. CHP proudly sponsors two holiday walks and runs that will lift your mood, burn calories (pumpkin pie, anyone?), and benefit good causes. Have an outing with friends or family!

November 27, Tallahassee Turkey Trot

Gulfwinds Track Club Event

8:00 a.m. 1-mile Turkey Gobbler walk/run

8:30 a.m. 5K, 10K, 15K

State Office Complex, Capital Circle S.E.

Register online at www.gulfwinds.org/turkeytrot, on race day 6:45–7:30 a.m., or call 850-425-6671.

For full information, including the pre-race Music Fest on November 23, see the website.

December 6, Jingle Bell Run

City of Tallahassee, Winter Festival

6:15 p.m. 3K

Monroe Street at Park Avenue

For registration details, visit http://www.talgov.com/parks/winter/index.cfm or call 850-891-3860.

Check out these upcoming free, informative seminars. Call 850-523-7333 for more information or to RSVP.

Capital Health Plan Presents

Join us to see a history of medicine in Florida at the Tallahassee Museum now through April 5, 2009. Please contact the Tallahassee Museum at 850-575-8684 for museum hours and other information.

Team CHP Walks Proudly in Making Strides 2008

Capital Health Plan was the presenting sponsor for this year’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is the American Cancer Society’s premier event to raise awareness and funds to fight breast cancer. CHP had a team of more than 162 walkers, raising more than $10,000. Congratulations Team CHP!

The Continuity of Care Record (CCR) is a snapshot of your current health status (such as conditions, medications, allergies), as well as basic information about your insurance, benefit plan, and physicians. The new feature complies with industry-standard formatting, which will allow you to download the record to a file and share it with other physicians or providers. The CCR in CHPConnect can be conveniently downloaded into an XML format (for sharing with other electronic health systems), saved as a PDF, or printed on paper.

The CCR can be a valuable method to give new providers pertinent information about your health, saving time and removing the potential for errors.

Capital Health Plan knows that the way we conduct our business offers us the opportunity to earn our customer’s respect and trust. Our customers are our reason for being. To that end, we believe our customers have the right to privacy and that their non-public personal, financial and health information should be kept confidential. Our practices to protect your privacy are not new. However, new laws now require we notify you about our privacy policy concerning:

• what kind of personal information we collect about you and how we obtain it
• how we use your personal information
• what kind of personal information about you we release to other companies
• how we protect your personal information
• information your employer provides us
• information received from other sources

This Privacy Notice is provided to help you better understand how we protect your nonpublic personal, financial and health information. If you have questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us. If you are one of our members you can call Member Services at 383-3311. If you are an employer representative you can reach us through a Sales Representative.

What Kind of Personal Information Do We Collect and How Do We Obtain It?

Generally, the information includes your name, address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, age, sex, height and weight, occupation, health habits, general medical information. It could also include accident and injury dates. Most of this information is provided by you. We obtain personal information about you from the following sources:

• information you provided us, or an affiliate, on an application form for health plan coverage
• information your physician or other health care practitioner provided us.

How Do We Use Your Personal Information?

We use your personal information to perform transactions and functions necessary to implement and administer the health plan benefits purchased from us. On occasion, your personal information is used for reporting or other functions required or permitted by law.

What Kind of Personal Information About You Do We Release?

We may share any of the information we collect about you (as described above) with our affiliates, namely our health business partners. We may disclose any of the information we collect about you to other parties, including vendors retained to audit medical records and billings. However, the type and the amount of information we share with others is limited to what is necessary to implement and administer the health plan you have with us, or as otherwise permitted or required by law. We may disclose any of the information we collect about you (as described above) to companies that perform marketing or other services on our behalf, including administrative services.

How Do We Protect Your Information?

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect your personal information. We access and use your personal information to the extent necessary to administer the health plan services you are entitled to. We establish confidentiality agreements with contracted parties that receive non-public personal financial and health information about you. We restrict access to your non-public personal, financial and health information to those employees who need to know that information to administer the product or service you purchased from us.

Original approval 10/23/2001, reviewed 9/6/2007. Reviewed 9/5/2008

For the 20th year in a row, CHP’s administrative costs are less than 5% of its revenues. This industry-leading efficiency contributes to membership affordability.

Capital Health Plan’s mission is to help Tallahassee-area residents receive comprehensive, affordable health care services. Keeping administrative overhead low has always been an important objective. Dollars spent on management, marketing, claims processing, etc., are dollars that aren’t available for your health care needs. That’s why, as CHP tries to stretch the health-care dollar to cover as much as possible, we minimize the portion of that dollar spent on non-clinical services.

Nationally, Capital Health Plan’s administrative costs are among the lowest reported by health plans. We achieve that result in several ways: our staff’s dedicated efforts, investments in cost-saving technology, and a philosophical commitment to maximize both value and affordability of the health services and coverage for our CHP members.

Q: I want to get healthy . . . if it’s free or low cost! Any suggestions?

The answers are more plentiful than you may expect. The rest is up to you! Here are a few simple suggestions that will make a difference in your life.

Walk.

It’s the easiest, best free exercise of all. Just don’t set unrealistic goals. Start with even 10 or 15 minutes at a time, and work up to 30 minutes five days a week. Rainy day? Walk in the mall. You’ll quickly feel the mood and energy boost of walking. (Also consider a fitness center, now more affordable with a CHP $150 membership reimbursement. See page 3 for details!)

Control portion size.

If you’re not ready to change your diet drastically, begin by reducing amounts—and eat more slowly. Using smaller plates and bowls at home is a good trick. They’ll look full, and you’ll discover you still feel full with less food. Most meals cooked at home are cheaper and have fewer calories than restaurant meals. If you have leftovers, freeze them for later rather than grazing on them after hours. Avoid eating anything two to three hours before going to bed. In addition to avoiding acid reflux (heart burn), studies show eating fewer calories later in the day promotes less storage of those calories as fat.

Stop buying and eating junk food.

Break away from this unhealthy American pastime. Most fast food restaurants have healthy choices now. Make the healthy choice.

Laugh.

I’m serious. A good belly laugh actually has healthful physiological effects (also smiles and chuckles). Stress and worry can cause illness. So be open to looking on the light side, watch and read comedies, and seek out people with a good sense of humor. The doctor says: yuck it up.

Take our new online Health Survey.

This great tool yields personal health help. You answer questions that take 15–20 minutes and then receive an individualized (and updateable) report. The survey also creates forms that you can take to doctors’ visits, lets you set and track health goals, and generates a tailor-made list of information resources. The Health Survey is a terrific way to map the “big picture” of your health and decide personal goals. Do you want to lose 20 pounds, improve your strength and balance, or reduce the medications you take? CHP can help! Try this and other online services and don’t forget our 24-hour Health Coaching phone line (850-383-3400). We also have health classes and support groups through our Health Promotions department (850-383-3511) and their community partners. Live well. It’s your choice!

To Access the Health Survey

1. Click on Members tab.
2. Click CHP Health Coaching.
3. Log on with your user ID and password (or register, if you are a first-time user).
4. Click Health Tools.
5. Click Health Survey.

What a great exercise incentive! CHP now has more help for your choice to “Live Well.” A

new program for members in 2008 is a $150 reimbursement—per calendar year—for fitness center membership.

Exercise is one of the best health steps you can take. Today, fitness centers offer many options for personal tastes and enjoyment: not only weights and equipment, but yoga, Pilates, jazzercise, swimming, and more. Please check with your physician before starting an exercise program. CHP will reimburse you directly for fees you pay to a health and fitness center. Here’s how the program works.

• To receive a reimbursement, you must be a member of the fitness center for at least four consecutive months. Keep all documentation of your membership and fees.
• Most centers or programs qualify. Exclusions are country or social clubs, spas, gymnastic centers, martial arts studios, tennis facilities, sports teams or leagues, and personal trainers.
• The maximum reimbursement is $150 per calendar year, per household (CHP member or covered dependents). For Medicare members, the maximum reimbursement is $150 per member, per calendar year.
• You file for the reimbursement once per year (no later than March 31 of the following year) and must be a current CHP member when you file. For example, for a membership occurring in 2008, you must file by March 31, 2009.
• Go to Health & Fitness under Live Healthy on the Members tab for required documentation and how to submit it.

Any questions? Please call Member Services at 850-383-3311 or TDD 850-383-3534.