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March 1999 Trust Talk
New Phone System
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Where Are You?
As we've already mentioned, the Trust will be mailing benefits and enrollment information
to your homes over the next few months. If you've moved over the last year or are a recent hire of the State or know someone who
is, please make sure home mailing addresses are current by March 31. You can list your address as a PO Box, but please, make sure
you'll be able to check your mail frequently. To make sure you don't miss anything essential, check your address on record with
your Payroll/Personnel officer as soon as possible, and make changes as needed.
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To better handle calls and provide more access for members working second or third shift, the
Trust will be adding new capabilities to our phone system. The new system should be operational by May 17 in anticipation of the increased number
of calls we receive related to open enrollment.
Your calls to the Trust will still be answered by an automated attendant and you'll still
be able to transfer to Trust customer service (available 8-5, M-F), but you'll have access to more information than ever before. Our new system
will include:
- Answers to frequently-asked
questions,
- Forms available
for immediate fax back or requests to mail to your home address, and
- Open enrollment
critical dates, forms and information (only available during Trust open
enrollment).
A touch-tone telephone
will help you best use the new system, but members calling on rotary phones
can still access customer service. If you have a newer rotary phone, you
may want to switch from pulse to tone after dialing and then should be
able to use the system.
Also, you won't need
to learn a new phone number to access our new system - just call 614-508-2255
(in Columbus) or 800-228-5088 (elsewhere in Ohio) anytime. More information
about the new system will be provided in the future to help you use it
most efficiently.
Since this will be
a new telephone system designed to improve our service to you, our customers,
we need your feedback about it. As you use the system, please let us know
if there is anything that you think will make the system more helpful
to you and your Union-represented coworkers.
ATTN:
DM0 MEMBERS
If you are a member
of the Prudential Healthcare DMO, you must have a personal dentist elected
for you and each family member: The DMO will assign personal dentists
to members who have not declared a personal dentist by March 31, 1999.
To check if you have a personal dentist, call the DMO at 800-843-3661.
Please choose who you'd like to coordinate your care, rather than letting
the plan pick the closest network dentist currently accepting patients
for you; this is especially important if you live outside of a metropolitan
area. Since the network is subject to change, the network dentist closest
to you could be several towns or counties away. If you do not elect a
personal dentist by March 31, you will be notified in writing as to which
dentist you must go to for your dental care so that you'll receive the
network rates.
Members
whohave elected a personal dentist will not be charged, and do not need
to call.
Trust Talk contains
only highlights of your benefits and is not a plan document. See the official
plan documents for full plan details or if a discrepancy exists between
this newsletter and the plan documents; the plan documents are always
the final authority.
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