Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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\ .v. iliBill Associate Assistance Program provides confidential service Clinton Mills employees are responding well to the Associate Assistance Program. The program offers a free and confidential counseling service to employees. Most of us experience personal problems at some point or another in our lives. For the majority, the problems normally solve themselves with a minor adjustment period. However, some problems are of a more serious nature and require outside help. Clinton employees are offered excellent counseling services on a free and confidential basis. The Company’s program has provided numerous employ ees professional assistance due to personal, family, financial, and job related problems. The Associate Assistance Program is a reasonable place to start for per sonal concerns that effect job performance and the employee’s personal life One of the major benefits of the Associate Assistance Program has been the services provided for employees with alcohol and drug related problems. Alcohol problems cause much distress within a family. Many employee’s family members have entered alcohol and drug treatment centers after meeting with Clinton’s assigned counselors. The AAP counselor will do everything possible to provide appropriate services at no cost. However, expenses that are incurred through specialized treatment centers will be discussed with the employees. Anyone wishing to use the AAP can contact the counselor through their Personnel Department, Plant Nurse, or Supervisor. lUilf About your group medical care benefits In an effort to expedite payment to those employees who have dual insur ance coverage, Clinton Mills Insurance Coordinator Truman Owens offers these helpful suggestions: If you or your dependents are covered by more than one group in surance carrier, you must supply Pro vident a copy of the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from the primary car rier before your claim can be processed. “We can serve our employees much better when they furnish us a copy of the benefits the primary carrier has paid. Many times other companies either do not respond to our requests for information or they are slow in responding,” explained Owens. “The primary insurance company will supply information to the insured for them to forward to the secondary carrier”, Owens said. If an employee receives an EOB from Provident showing a zero amount paid with the following message: “Your claim has been handled assuming the primary carrier will pay these charges in full. If this is not the case, attach their EOB to this form and return it for consideration.” It will be necessary to furnish Pro vident a copy of the EOB from the primary carrier for further claim consideration. Anyone needing additional informa tion on claim filing should contact the Personnel Department. Insurance costs continue upward trend This chart shows the rapid increase over a five (5) year period of the average cost for medical care for Clinton employees. Average cost per employee has gone from $395 in 1986 to a projected cost in 1990 of $1,276. This is an increase of over 220% for the five-year period. Unfortunately, there is no apparent end in sight to double-digit health care inflation. Clinton Mills, Inc. Medical Cost Per Employee $1,400 $1,200 $1,000 $800 $600 $200 $0 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 What can we do about it? We can help curb the growth in costs by: • Using outpatient surgery to avoid an expensive hospital stay when your doctor tells you that your surgery does not require staying in the hospital... • Asking your doctor if the generic rather than the brand name drug will be just as effective but less expensive... • Avoiding, if possible, checking into the hospital on Saturday, Sunday or on a holiday... • Asking your doctor to arrange for hospital tests to be done on an out patient basis prior to admission to the hospital and possible surgery... • Considering seeking a second opin ion for elective surgery. It’s covered by the plan. Sometimes there are treat ment alternatives to surgery. All you’ve got to lose is not having to have the surgery. Very simply, we must spend our health dollars sensibly. Clinton’s philosophy is not to pay every expense. That isn’t a good use of our benefit dollars. But our plan is designed to help keep up with the rising costs of health care. In most cases, its benefits are a percentage of the charges made for certain procedures. So, as health care costs go up, so do dollars paid by the plan. We want to keep the impact of the ris ing medical care costs to an absolute minimum. By using the plan wisely, we can have a positive effect on helping control these runaway costs. Cloth Maker - page 5