VERMONT RETIRED STATE EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION, INC

"Working for All Retired State Employees and Beneficiaries"

P.O. BOX 247 MONTPELIER, VERMONT 05601

October 2016

Greetings to all Retirees and Beneficiaries;

We hope this communication finds you all well and that you were able to enjoy the beautiful display of fall colors. It is always a pleasure to share with you, information of interest.

Your VRSEA has just completed another challenging and busy Fiscal Year ending September 30, 2016. A major accomplishment was the drafting of a proposal to the 2016 legislature, to eliminate future Negative COLAs. This was included in the Miscellaneous Retirement Bill introduced by the Treasurer's office, which successfully passed and is now law. We also celebrated VRSEA's 50th anniversary at our annual meeting, experienced the departure of three excellent Trustees, elected three new Officers, elected a representative and alternate to the State Retirement Board, welcomed four new Trustees and revised the By-Laws, as approved at the annualmeeting.

We want to sincerely thank Cornelius Reed, President; Ira Solace, Treasurer; and E. Hale Ritchie, our By-law writer, for their outstanding contributions and service. They will all be missed and we wish them well in their future endeavors. We also wish to thank Cedric Smith, Secretary, for his endless dedication and hard work. Cedric has relinquished his secretarial duties, but remains with the Board as a trustee.

We want to welcome and congratulate our new Trustees, Kathy Callaghan, Shelly Martin, Allen Ploof and Charly Dickerson for volunteering to serve on our board.

ANNUAL MEETING: On September 14, 2016 we held our annual meeting at the Barre Canadian Club. We celebrated a major milestone, VRSEA's 50th year of serving all retirees and beneficiaries thru the voluntary efforts by all the trustees over said time. The Roast Beef, Baked Ham and Baked Chicken Buffet lunch, was well received. Our guess speaker, Elliot Greenblott, a representative of AARP and Treasurer of the State's Retired Teacher Association, educated us all on Senior Citizen Scams and how to protect ourselves from identity theft. He provided a lot of food for thought and was well received.

We were also informed by Laurie Lanphear, Director of the Retirement office, that the COLA for 2017 will be 1% for all groups. She also mentioned that the Retiree Times will be going online beginning 2017. You will need to respond to the recent newsletter mailing from the Treasurer's office, if you wish to continue receiving their letter by mail.

Clarke Collins, Deputy Director of the Wellness and Benefits office spoke about the ongoing activity with Express Script and offered to provide us a written response about data Privacy and Drug Providers Registration.

Confidentiality of private information was a concern of many retirees when registering for the Flu Shots. VRSEA pursued this matter and we hope the following response provides some comfort as to your privacy concern:

"Thank you for bringing this concern forward. We understand that even the potential for the disclosure of personal information can be unsettling, especially after the AARP presentation at the annual meeting. The Benefits and Wellness division takes data security very seriously, not only with the information housed in our office but also with the vendors that we contract with.

It's important to first point out that no breach has occurred. No records were improperly accessed or shared. Additionally, Passport Health believes that their process does not break any HIPAA rules or regulations, as the privacy rule allows for the transfer of personal information via email when that communication is from a provider to their patient, which is the case in this situation. That being said, the privacy rule does require that providers maintain reasonable and appropriate data safeguards. Passport Health believes that they comply with this by encrypting all information they store in their offices and by encrypting all emails sent from their server.

Once this situation regarding the emails was brought to our attention, the State asked that Passport Health take appropriate actions to avoid any further concerns or confusion going forward. To that end, they adapted their system so that only a redacted version of the information would be included on the confirmation email sent to registrants. This, on top of the encryption, should dissuade concern from retirees in supplying their information to Passport Health for their flu shot needs.

If any retirees do have further concerns, Passport Health's Privacy Policy and HIPAA Policy are both available at the bottom of their website:
https://www.passporthealthusa.com

Passport Health also has a dedicated support team ready to assist, and can be reached at their Flu Support Line at 844-358-3733, option 1 or via email at:
clientservices@ passporthealth usa .com

Drug Providers (Prescription Issuers) Registration. All Retirees/Beneficiaries on Medicare will be affected by the new rule required by Medicare as follows:

"Prescribers caring for patients with Part D prescription benefits (such as the retiree EGWP benefit) are required to be enrolled in the Medicare program or seek an exemption before February 1, 2017. Prescribers include most physicians, dentists, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

After the enrollment requirement is implemented on 2/1/17, Medicare part D prescription drug plans are not permitted to cover drugs prescribed by unenrolled providers. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) will receive prescriber enrollment data directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), or a third-party data source designed by CMS, to implement claim edits for part D plans to manage this new Medicare prescriber requirement.

Express Scripts put secondary messaging in place to alert members if their prescribing physician was not currently enrolled with Medicare to alert members of the potential of a future reject if their prescribing physician did not enroll with CMS. This process was put in place in line with CMS's direction to educate members and physicians of this new guidance.

ESI is also going to be doing a training with the Customer Service team in the next few months so they are prepared to answer questions if member's start receiving a reject because their physician hasn't enrolled with Medicare."

Finally, to complete our 50th celebration was the drawing of prizes, an event that everyone enjoys. We gave out Ten cash prizes, Ten Lottery Tickets and Ten store gifts totaling 30 winners in all. We thank all the donors for their support to our organization.

VRSEA OFFICERS and TRUSTEES: As per the approved By-Law change that authorized the election of officers by the trustees, the following are the elected VRSEA officers for two year terms:

Marc Metayer, President, Allen Blake, Vice-President, Roger Dumas, Treasurer and Cynthia Webster, Secretary. The officers also hold a trustee seat on the board. The other trustees are: Cedric Smith, Vern Mackey, Joe Healey, past president for Cornelius Reed, Kathy Callaghan, Shelly Martin, Allen Ploof and Charly Dickerson. Roger Dumas will continue to serve as Chairman of the State Retirement Board and Al Blake as the alternate.

Please see our Web-Site shown above, for trustee contact information as well as the specific minutes of our annual meeting. You can also contact our Webmaster by email.

MEMBERSHIP SUPPORT: VRSEA has begun its 51st year as of October 1, 2016. Your support provides the financial funding for the ongoing services and actions pursued by your board on your behalf. We want to thank all the members who have already renewed and or joined as a new member. We also want to thank those members who provided additional donations to our cause. However, there are over 7000 retirees and beneficiaries, who are receiving either the Health and Drug coverage, Dental, Life Insurance or Pension Benefits. Also, your Pension asset investments are being challenged. Your support which "Helps Us to Help You" provides 100% of the financing for the services and actions we find necessary to help protect, preserve and or enhance our benefits. We have included a membership form below and ask you to support our efforts. Invest in your organization, be a participant in the process which is sincerely appreciated by your VRSEA board and your fellow retirees.

By the way, please note that VRSEA (Vermont Retired State Employees Association) is not the same organization as the Retired State Employee Chapter of VSEA. We represent All Retirees and Beneficiaries, answer only to our membership, independent from any other body and dedicate 100% of our efforts on retirement concerns and issues. We do not require any third-party approval to conduct our business or pursue legislation. We have our own hired lobbyists, who are attorneys as well. VRSEA is recognized in the Vermont Statutes as the voice of Retired State Employees and Beneficiaries and we are registered with the Secretary of State. We hope this helps clarify who we are and again ask that you support our efforts by joining VRSEA. Strength in numbers is a strong asset for all of us. Thank You.

Sincerely,
Marc Metayer
President

Please note - this will be your only communication from VRSEA if you do not become a member within this current year from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017.

Membership Application

VRSEA, INC. DUES October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017

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