On Wednesday, October 30, 2024, UFCW 99 President Jim McLaughlin hosted a live telephone town hall with Shawn Lovering of Southwest Service Administrators to answer your questions regarding Rally Health ahead of the November 30, 2024 biometric deadline. For those who were unable to attend, below is the full recording of the call as well as an abbreviated call summary.
UFCW Local 99 Telephone Town Hall Summary
Q&A with Shawn Lovering, Southwest Service Administrators
Biometric Form Deadline & Eligibility
Question: What is the deadline to get my Rally form in? Originally it was supposed to be October 31 but I understand it’s changed.
Answer: The deadline has been extended to November 30 of 2024 so you’ll have extra time to get your forms in.
Question: If I’m having a hard time downloading those forms, is there another option?
Answer: Absolutely. If you can’t get to your forms, you can do a couple of things, but both of them entail calling Southwest Service Administrators.
- We have a paper form that you can use in lieu of the other form that you get from Rally that we created, so we can send that out to you if you need that.
- If you’re going to use that alternative form, the only thing you still need to do is make sure you register on Rally, because that way you can be marked as compliant when we send you over. So you’ll return that form to SSA if you get the alternate form, and we’ll go ahead and send that over to Optum so that you’re marked as compliant on your activities.
- If you log into Rally and you don’t see an option to earn rewards or to print a form or anything like that, it could be that your plan is not subject to partnership. So if you are in Plans A, B or C, in either partnership or personal directions, to be eligible.
- If you’re in Plan B1, this is not something that you have to complete. But then if you still feel like you are in one of those programs, call our office, we’ll get you a form.
Question: So that is all I need to do to make sure that I’m still eligible for the partnership plan on Plan A or B or C, partnership plans effective January one?
Answer: Exactly, right. You need to have that form in.
Confirmation of Completion
Question: Will you notify us once we’ve completed what’s required and will continue as part of the Partnership for the next year?
Answer: Rally doesn’t reach out to you and say you’re confirmed. What they’ll do is send us a file, much like we did in the past. We will upload that to our system and then create a fallout list, double check it and make sure that we have everybody in there for 2025 compliance. As long as you’ve completed a biometrics form, you’re good.
Disease Management Changes
Question: In the past, to participate in the partnership plan, there were some disease management things that we had to do as well. What’s going on with that? I understand there’s been some change in the requirement to meet with counselors for the disease management portion of the partnership program.
Answer: That is correct. All of the disease management programs, heart disease, asthma, cholesterol, etc., all of those have gone away and have been suspended for the time being. The only program that is going to remain that’s going to be effective on January 1 is Virta, which is a program for diabetes to help you better control your diabetes, make sure that you’re on target to meet your goals with your diabetes.
Question: Great, but Virta doesn’t come until January 01, 2025?
Answer: Correct, and they’ll be reaching out to you if you have diabetes. So as you submit the forms, they’ll get forwarded on to Virta. Virta is going to look at them and reach out to you to enter you into the program. And if you have diabetes, you’re going to have to participate in their program to maintain the partnership next year for 2026 compliance.
Preventative Tests for Compliance
Question: The other thing that many of us have had to do, especially those at 50 years old or older, there’s a number of tests that we have had to have in the past, like colonoscopies, mammograms, etc. How do we submit that into the Rally system?
Answer: Rally utilizes claim data to identify who’s eligible and who should have those tests, because they all run on cadence of timing. However, there are several people that may not need it. So what we’re doing for this year is that those are not required to complete your partnership compliance. We realized after speaking with Rally that they had no way for the doctor to submit that they were not required to take that test. Maybe somebody had a colonoscopy five years ago and their doctor said you’re good for 10 years. So there was no way for the doctor to do that, so we’re working on a solution for that for next year, but for this year, if you don’t get those tests or don’t know that you need them, then they’re not required for partnership compliance. All that’s required for compliance is the biometrics that are on the form.
Question: How does my doctor indicate that additional preventative tests are not required? Should they write a note, or should we just ignore it all together?
Answer: Ignore it all together.
Why Rally?
Question: Why did we make the change to Rally? Is this a better program?
Answer: Yes, we believe it is. We had some issues with the former vendor just sending us all the correct data and getting people into the right plans, and we wanted to move to something that was a little more up to speed and had a better platform for members where they could also explore other wellness activities. We realize it’s been hard this year, and we’ve already taken all of your feedback and are making changes for next year to make everything easier — easier to find the form, easier to log in, easier to see where you are for compliance. So we’re making lots of changes, but we think going forward, once everybody gets the hang of this, just like they did in the past with the uprise model, they’ll be able to thrive in this space.
Physical Exam
Question: What would you tell somebody who is being told by their doctor that they have to wait 12 months for their next physical exam?
Answer: I would tell them that one of our (SSA) reps would be happy to call his office and let him know that your plan allows you to go ahead and get those tests. It doesn’t have to be on a one year cadence, as long as it’s within the plan year.
EMAP & HMC
Question: I know that Uprise was also our vendor for some of our employee assistance programs in mental health and things like that. What’s going on with the EMAP and HMC in that network?
Answer: That network is going away. The fund has hired a new vendor called ENI Next Hen that will handle all the previous EMAP services, so your eight free visits per condition, so if you’re having trouble at home, say for example you are getting a divorce and you need legal advice and legal counseling, you can call them and do eight visits. Then, say you have anxiety, and six months later, you can call again and get eight more free visits. For members who might be diagnosed with other mental health or substance abuse disorder issues, they may recommend that you go see a counselor outside of those eight sessions once they are completed.
Benefit Information
Question: How are our members going to see these benefits? Are either going to go in the Know Your Benefits mailer? Is it on the website? How do we get information?
Answer: It’ll be on the website. We recently sent out a member communication. It went out last week, so you should be seeing that in the mail that talks about all these changes that are going on, a lot of which we talked about with the Diabetes Program and the mental health and then it’ll also be in the upcoming Know Your Benefits issue. And then, as always, if you go to the portal, those will all be updated there as well.
Additional Questions
Question: If someone had a question that they didn’t get the answer this evening, what can they do? Can they call southwest service administrators? Do you have that phone number for them and give them some advice?
Answer: Answer: Yes, they can call Southwest Service Administrators at (602) 249-3582 or Toll Free at 1 (800) 474-3485. If you want to give us a call, we’re happy to answer all those questions for you. Don’t forget to also keep your mailing address up to date with both your union and SSA to ensure that you don’t miss important mail regarding your health and welfare benefits, including Rally for Life.
