Local 591 EAP / Member Assistance

Credit IAM EAP, LAP

March  2019

Benefits and You

March BENEFIT REPORT

Please check your 401(k) Special Elections options and handle accordingly for a 3/8/2019 profit sharing post.

Benefit Team had discussions with Anthony Giandiletti on the stats of FMLA.

• FMLA on IOD, the company did a survey of outside companies using FMLA while on IOD, STD, Maternity and stated that 99% run concurrent with all other leaves.
• All FMLA leave is unscheduled, so if pattern is established (e.g. weekends, same day of week, etc), members are being asked to recertify.
• Average approval time for FMLA is four days.
• Average Return to Work processing is one business day
• FMLA denial rate 20%

 Company states that for chronic FMLA conditions (conditions that persist year over year) member’s doctor are copying previous years form information and are not showing a change in condition, your doctor doing this copy/paste action may delay of deny FMLA certification.

 Metlife Short Term Disability, Company Policy.
Company reviewed their process for filing claim.

 Call Metlife at (888)533-6287 - Have following Data ready:

•   Your station /location
•   Last Day work
•   Last Day paid
•   Attending Physician name, phone and address
•  Work Area contact

 Accolade Update,  Accolade health assistant is there to answer your questions big or small related to your BCBS or UMR medical coverage, or if you don’t know who to call.

Recommend all Members download the Accolade App,

• Remember - chat section is not a live chat
• Company states that Accolade has 99% approval rating.

 Survivor Support

•   374 Deaths for January/February 2019 company wide
•   Survivor Guides Active and Retirement being revised.

Retirement Support

•   245 retirements all of American Airlines
•   102 TWU retirements January/February 2019
•   Retiree kits going out in 7-10 days.
•   Retirement Checklist now available on Jetnet
•   Retirement Seminars are available

•   Spring Road Benefit shows coming to larger stations, schedule forthcoming

Staywell Program (90-day prescriptions)

•   Program being underutilized

Heart Health
(Excerpts from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health)

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease. The good news? Heart disease can often be prevented when people make healthy choices and manage their health conditions. Communities, health professionals, and families can work together to create opportunities for people to make healthier choices.

Our team would like to raise awareness about heart disease and how people can prevent it — both at home and in the community. Here are just a few ideas:

• Encourage friends and family to make changes, like using spices to season their food instead of salt.
• Motivate youngsters to make physical activity a part of the school day. It’s never too late to start good habits.
• Ask experts and use the internet to find out about ways to prevent heart disease.

You can make healthy changes to lower your risk of developing heart disease. Controlling and preventing risk factors is also important for people who already have heart disease. To lower your risk:

• Watch your weight.
• Quit smoking and stay away from secondhand smoke.
• Control your cholesterol and blood pressure.
• If you drink alcohol, drink only in moderation.
• Get active and eat healthy.

 Some risk factors, such as age and family history of early heart disease, can't be changed.
For women, age becomes a risk factor at 55. After menopause, women are more apt to get heart disease, in part because their body’s production of estrogen drops. Women who have gone through early menopause, either naturally or because they have had a hysterectomy, are twice as likely to develop heart disease as women of the same age who have not yet gone through menopause. Another reason for the increasing risk is that middle age is a time when women tend to develop risk factors for heart disease.

Family history of early heart disease is another risk factor that can’t be changed. If your father or brother had a heart attack before age 55, or if your mother or sister had one before age 65, you are more likely to get heart disease yourself. Preeclampsia is another heart disease risk factor that you can't control. However, if you’ve had the condition, you should take extra care to try to control other heart disease risk factors. Being more physically active and eating a healthy diet are important steps for your heart health. You can make the changes gradually, one at a time. But making them is very important. You may wonder: If I have just one risk factor for heart disease—say, I'm overweight or I have high blood cholesterol—aren’t I more or less "safe"? Absolutely not. Each risk factor greatly increases a woman’s chance of developing heart disease. But having more than one risk factor is especially serious, because risk factors tend to "gang up" and worsen each other’s effects. So, the message is clear: Every woman needs to take her heart disease risk seriously—and take action now to reduce that risk.

What Are Your Risk Factors for Heart Disease?

Risk factors are conditions or habits that make a person more likely to develop a disease. They can also increase the chances that an existing disease will get worse. Important risk factors for heart disease are:

• Having high blood pressure
• Having high blood cholesterol
• Unhealthy lifestyle
• Being overweight or obese
• Diabetes and prediabetes
• Smoking
• Being physically inactive. Having a family history of early heart disease
• Unhealthy diet
• Age (55 or older for women)

March Monthly Observances

• Save Your Vision Month and Workplace Eye Wellness Month
• National nutrition month
• National Kidney month

Our team is working on getting the prescription safety glasses, HOYA, to locations to coincide with what Jetnet says, in the meantime follow the link below and fill out offsite location forms to get you prescription safety glasses.