UCOP Needs to Make the Call to Protect Survivor Health Insurance - Part 10 (retreat statement)

UCOP. Don't be afraid. Pick up the phone.

As we noted yesterday,* the Regents are meeting this week at Lake Arrowhead for a retreat. The sessions are not being streamed and some are closed. So there is no video or audio recording available. However, public comment was included and yours truly today made the comment below concerning the improper cancellation of survivors' health insurance:

Hello Regents. I hope you are having a fruitful retreat. I am Professor-Emeritus Dan Mitchell speaking for the fourth time at a Regents meeting on behalf of the Emeriti Associations of UCLA, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco. When a UC retiree dies, he or she often has a surviving spouse eligible for continued health insurance under the Regents' retiree plan. Yet when survivors call to report the death of the retiree, they are being told, "We're sorry for your loss; We're also sorry to tell you that we have inadvertently terminated your health insurance. We'll let you know when we have restored it."

This is a problem unique to UC. It's not happening at CalPERS or CalSTRS. I chair a labor-management committee of a major public agency that looks after health insurance. We don't cut off survivors. 

Why don't survivors get cut off elsewhere? Because the insurance carriers are given a list of names of who to cover and they do so, so long as they are paid the contractual rate. And UC is a major customer, so the carriers have every incentive to follow UC's instructions.

Thus, there is a simple solution for UC. The officials in charge need to pick up the phone, call the insurance carriers, and tell them not to cancel survivors. They need to pick up the phone rather than offer mysterious excuses of why this can't be done.  

When I signed up to speak to you today about this matter, that action led to to an email invitation from a UC executive to set up a Zoom call next week to discuss the problem. So I hope by the next Regents meeting, I can report that the insurance carriers were phoned and properly instructed. But if not, I'll be back to continue our request that the improper cancellation of survivor health insurance be stopped. 

Thank you for your attention and enjoy Lake Arrowhead. 

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As we have stated many times before: UCOP...pick...up...the...phone! Call the carriers and end the improper cancellation of survivors.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-regents-have-been-and-will-be.html.