Healthy Boiler Newsletter Issue #4: October 24, 2018

Your 2019 benefits: What’s new?

Every year, University leadership reviews and analyzes employee benefits and costs to both employees and the university. As healthcare costs continue to rise at a rapid rate, we had to make some tough decisions for this plan year. The following outlines what will be “new” to employees in regards to our medical plans for 2019.

Living with a chronic condition? Resources are available to help you manage it

Individuals living with chronic diseases – conditions that require ongoing, continual adjustments by the affected individual and continual collaboration with members of the healthcare field – know all too well how those conditions affect their daily lives, not only physically and mentally, but financially as well.

Affordable Care Act requires dependent Social Security numbers for medical coverage

The Affordable Care Act (aka Health Care Reform) requires employers to send dependent social security numbers (SSN) for those covered on a Purdue medical plan to the IRS, along with the dependent’s medical plan election. Please take a moment to review your dependent’s information in Benefitfocus to ensure their SSN information has been entered and is valid.  If your dependent does not have an SSN to enter, you may disregard this message.

Look what’s back: Healthy Boiler Wellness Program returns for 2019

The Healthy Boiler Wellness Program – introduced in 2018 as a way to encourage benefits-eligible employees (and spouses covered on a Purdue health plan) to engage in healthy lifestyle choices and earn monetary incentives – is back again for 2019. 

Ready to live tobacco free, be heathier and save money? There are resources available to you to help!   

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoke harms nearly every organ in the body, causes many diseases, and reduces the health of smokers in general. It also states that cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.

Preventive care, annual physicals: What’s the big deal? 

There’s a lot of talk lately about the importance of preventive care and getting your annual physical. For starters, preventive care and annual physicals play an important role in your overall health and wellness and provides you with the first line of defense against any unforeseen medical issues. Plus, preventive care is FREE under all Purdue medical plans. This includes your annual physical and other preventive screenings – such as blood pressure, type 2 diabetes screening, cholesterol and lipid level, mammogram – as well as an annual flu vaccine. For more information on preventive care, Anthem provides a list that outlines preventive care services.