It can be hard to get from here to there

From an email received Monday:

University of California

Dear valued member,

We are writing to acknowledge — and apologize for — the problems many members of the UC community are experiencing with Navitus Health, a new administrator of pharmacy benefits for UC employee and Medicare PPO plans, and to let you know what we are doing to fix the problems.

Last year, University of California Health (UCH) and UC Systemwide Human Resources selected Navitus Health to administer pharmacy benefits, starting Jan. 1, 2022. This decision was made following an extensive formal bid process, conducted by a committee with representatives from UCH, Systemwide HR, UC faculty with pharmacy expertise, and UC’s retiree association.

Navitus was selected as the partner that could provide UC with the best overall flexibility, service, and affordability. However, since UC’s transition to Navitus Health, we have heard from too many members who have been negatively impacted by this change.

Some members have had to change prescription drugs, been required to complete time-consuming authorization processes and experienced denials by Navitus, causing unnecessary anxiety and frustration. Navitus failed to meet the scheduled target date for mailing a clinical transition letter, causing hardship and worry for faculty, staff, retirees and their family members.

Additionally, like many employers Navitus has faced customer service staffing challenges, leading to wait times that far exceed Navitus’ standards and UC performance guarantees. Among other things, this has put undue pressure on benefits professionals at UC locations and in the UC Retirement Service Center and the UCPath Center, as they have worked to provide support that should be handled by Navitus.

We take these problems — and our responsibility to ensure that members of UC health plans have access to the prescriptions they need — very seriously. UCH and UC Systemwide Human Resources have been in constant communication with Navitus, and we want to let you know what we are doing to fix these problems.

Support with member transitions

Due to the delay in mailing clinical transition letters, Navitus has provided an extended transition period to the end of April for drugs that are not covered. Extension letters and an email campaign were recently initiated.

Navitus will call members who need to transition to new medications directly and offer help with authorizations, denials, and appeals. Those who have experienced a denial for a Not Covered/Non-Formulary medication will also receive a phone call offering help.

UCH, Alliant (a UC consultant) and Navitus will audit and review the protocols Navitus uses for denials to ensure they are in alignment with Navitus internal guidelines, industry standards and Medicare guidelines – and to identify and correct any gaps.

Customer service improvements

Navitus has committed to adding an additional 35 customer service representatives (an increase from 125 to 160) by the end of April, and hopes to add another 15 staff after that, along with additional support for UC benefits professionals.

Navitus has also added two more personnel with pharmacy clinical expertise to help UC benefit professionals support members.

In addition, Navitus is exploring a concierge-type customer service model to ensure UC members receive the dedicated assistance they need.

Again, we sincerely apologize for any difficulties you or your family members have experienced during this transition. We are committed to you receiving the critical health care you deserve, without unnecessary inconvenience or frustration.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Lloyd, Vice President, Systemwide Human Resources

Dr. Carrie Byington, Executive Vice President, University of California Health

Unclear on the concept

UCLA has been requiring weekly COVID tests of the spit-in-a-tube variety. The tests are available in vending machines accessible with a Bruincard. According to the instructions with each test, it is important to drop the sample in the box next to the vending machine within one hour of gathering it.

However, according to the sign on the box, if the sample isn't put in the box by 11 am, it isn't processed until the next day.

So why is it essential to put the sample in the box within one hour?

I guess this is just one of the mysteries of the pandemic. 

There actually is such a thing as bad publicity

There is a saying, attributed to various supposed authors, that "there is no such thing as bad publicity." But regardless of who might have said it, it isn't true.

An ad appeared recently that seemed to be for a faculty position with no pay. The ad began making the rounds of social media with, as you might expect, critical comments. Some commenters, however, did wonder whether what has being offered was a position in which the job holder had outside funds but needed a university position as a base. 

Still what was odd about the ad was that it focused on teaching rather than research. Typically, someone who had funding but needed a university home would have a research grant of some type. The ad said that evidence that needed to be submitted regarding research capability was optional. But a statement regarding teaching capability was required. Hence, the ad appeared to be for a teaching position.

Yours truly became aware of the ad after an inquiry from a journalist and sent the ad to the chair of the campus Faculty Welfare Committee, the president of the Faculty Association, and to the Interim Vice Provost for Academic Personnel. As a result, a clarification was issued:

UCLA is committed to providing fair compensation to faculty across the institution. We recognize the language in this particular advertisement could have benefitted from additional context and we are committed to doing better in the future. In the spirit of providing additional context, arrangements such as these are common in academia and, in cases where formal classroom teaching is a component, compensation for these services is provided commensurate to experience and with an eye to equity within the unit. Some positions may be without salary when individuals are compensated by other sources and a formal affiliation with UCLA is necessary, which may be needed to apply for or maintain a grant or conduct research.

It remains unclear why the ad seemed focused on teaching rather than research or where the funding for teaching would come from. The original text of the ad is reproduced at 

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-21/ucla-recruited-for-a-faculty-job-that-carries-no-pay.

What We Got

Higher Ed Dive has a listing of "earmarks" in the recent federal spending bill signed last Tuesday that went to higher education. Yours truly has gone through the listing and identified those earmarks that went to UC campuses. Listed below are the agency source and the names of the congressional representatives and/or senators responsible. 

Over $1 million came to UCLA and the two UCLA grants are shown in italics.

Department of Health & Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles, CA for the purchase of equipment, including telehealth equipment, Lieu, $600,000 

Department of Health & Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): University of California (San Francisco), Fresno Regional Campus, Fresno, CA, for facilities and equipment, Costa, $475,000 

Department of Health & Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, for a telehealth initiative, including purchase of equipment, Peters, $950,000

Department of Health & Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): University of California, Davis Health, Sacramento, CA, for an electronic health record and telehealth initiative, Matsui and Padilla, $1,700,000

Department of Health & Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, for a health workforce initiative, Garamendi, $1,000,000

Department of Education, Higher Education, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, for student basic needs services, Feinstein and Padilla, $450,000

Full listing and story at https://www.highereddive.com/news/earmarks-tally-703m-and-counting-for-higher-ed/620683/.

Watch the Regents Meeting of March 17, 2022 (including rejection of a new hire)

The Regents met last Thursday for their final March meeting. (There will be two off-cycle committee meetings in April.) Public comments included student assistance, the Munger dorm proposal at UC-Santa Barbara, student debt, and abortion. 

Regent Hadi Makarechian spoke remotely about an injury he suffered in a fall a year before which had left him paralyzed from the neck down initially. Thanks to treatment he received, he now has limited walking ability and is donating $1 million toward a program for spinal injuries.

Other topics taken up were a program to encourage small business suppliers to UC, the coronavirus situation, and student aid and debt.

Yesterday, we posted about the Wednesday session of the Health Services Committee at which Regent Pérez voted against a new hire for CFO at UC-Davis Health which exceeded the 75th percentile salary comparison.* Regent Park abstained. However, the recommendation to make the hire passed in the committee and was sent to the full board for a final decision. You can watch the discussion of the board at the link below from 1:39:00 to 2:05:00. In the end, although Regent Park changed her abstention to a "yes" vote, the new hire was REJECTED with a vote of 9 no, 7 yes, and 2 abstentions. Suffice it to say, a rejection of a new hire is very rare at the Regents. Exactly what will happen now is unclear. Even if the new hire were to accept a lower salary offer at or below the 75th percentile, the Health Services Committee won't meet again until May (at which time it could approve it). But the vacancy opens up on April 1 with the retirement of the incumbent CFO.

As always, we preserve the Regents' recordings since the Regents - for unknown reasons - delete them after one year. The link is:

https://archive.org/details/board-joint-meeting-academic-and-student-affairs-finance-and-capital-strategies-committees-3-17-22.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/03/watch-regents-afternoon-meeting-of.html.

Still in Normal Range

We continue our weekly tracking of new claims for unemployment insurance as an index of the state labor market and general economic activity. The numbers remain in the pre-pandemic range which is a Good Thing. Let's hope that the various events that are threats to the national economy - Ukraine, inflation, Federal Reserve policy - do not again derail the California economy. 

As always, the latest data are at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.

Watch the Regents Afternoon Meeting of March 16, 2022

There is seldom open disagreement about proposals coming from UCOP but at the Health Services Committee, there was. An appointment was proposed - first in closed session, then in open session - of a new Chief Financial Officer for the UC-Davis health system. The current CFO is retiring on April 1. 

The proposed candidate to take over on April 1 was Cheryl Sadro who is currently Executive Vice President and Chief Business and Finance Officer, University of Tennessee Medical Branch at a proposed salary of $802,000. According to data available to the Regents, that salary would put her 2.3% above the 75 percentile for salaries in comparable positions. Assuming she also earned an incentive bonus, total salary would be $922,300.* (There would be university benefits beyond salary.) 

The chair of Health Services, John Pérez said he could not approve the pay package and voted "no." Regent Lark Park abstained. However, the committee approved the appointment and sent it on the the full board on the following day. We will pick up this tale tomorrow when we review the March 17 meeting of the full board.

Three other committees met in the afternoon. At Finance and Capital Strategies, Regent Hadi Makarechian pushed for more density at a UC-Irvine project, given the high cost of land in the area. A UCLA computer project dealing with "Financial Systems Integration" was reported to be delayed. The Governance Committee approved some executive pay proposals without controversy.

Academic and Student Affairs had a session on learning and cheating (academic integrity). The learning component involved techniques of more customized learning, i.e., different paces for different students. The discussion of cheating/academic integrity possibly was triggered by problems that arose in exams during online classes during the pandemic. However, the committee went into closed session to discuss "legal issues" related to academic integrity which was somewhat surprising. Whether there are lawsuits that arose from the pandemic period or some other legal matters is unknown. 

As always, we have preserved the recordings of the sessions since the Regents delete them after one years. Links are below:

Afternoon session:

https://archive.org/details/pm-academic-and-student-affairs-committee-3-16-22

Academic and Student Affairs:

https://archive.org/details/pm-academic-and-student-affairs-committee-3-16-22/PM+Academic+and+Student+Affairs+Committee+3-16-22.mp4

Governance:

https://archive.org/details/pm-academic-and-student-affairs-committee-3-16-22/PM+Governance+Committee+3-16-22.mp4

Health Services and Finance and Capital Strategies:

https://archive.org/details/pm-academic-and-student-affairs-committee-3-16-22/PM+Health+Services+Committee%2C+Finance+and+Capital+Strategies+Committee+3-16-22.mp4

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The proposal is at https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar22/h1.pdf.