Newspapers / Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.) / March 1, 1985, edition 1 / Page 1
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T'trestonc NEWS GASTONIA, NORTH CAROLINA MARCH, 1985 HOPEWELL. VIRGINIA Let’s Do Our Part To Keep Down High Costs of Insurance and Medical Services A program of professional medical review became effective January 1, 1985 for active and retired employees. This program identifies unnecessary hospital ex penses and saves valuable medical care dollars for you and for the Company. Firestone will be working with Metrolina Medical Foundation, an organization of area doctors who are working with in dustry in North and South Carolina. The review program will allow you to be more involved in the process of planning for your medical care. The program provides information to help you make informed decisions about your health care. Your part in the review program will work like this: The medical review program recognizes two types of hospital admissions, emergen cy cases and planned elective cases. Emergency admissions are for those medical services which your doctor believes you must have right away in order to protect your health. Under the new pro gram, there will be no change in the way you are admitted to the hospital by your doctor in an emergency situation. Elective admissions are those which your doctor believes can be scheduled or delayed at least one day without any risk to your health. When your doctor recommends that you be admitted to the hospital for an elective treatment or surgery, you will now need to pick up a “Hospital Confinement Certifica tion Form” from the Personnel Office. You will then need to take the form to your doctor. This is a good time to discuss with your doctor whether the planned treatment or surgery could be provided on an outpatient basis. As a general rule, an outpatient procedure will cost much less than being admitted to the hospital for the same treatment. You should also think about the timing of your admission in relation to the day your treatment or surgery is scheduled. It may be possible for you to be admitted to the hospital the same day as your treatment or surgery will occur. Also, you should be aware that weekend admissions for non-emergency reasons will often add unnecessary extra days to your hospital stay. Most hospitals provide minimal services on weekends, so if you are admitted on a Saturday or Sunday, you may not be able to have the tests needed to diagnose or treat your condition until Mon day. Talk these things over with your doctor. If you and your doctor decide that your treatment cannot be done on an outpatient basis, have your doctor complete his part of your “Hospital Confinement Certification Form.” Then, take the form with you when you check into the hospital. Once you give the Certification Form to the hospital admitting office, you will have done your part to insure that hospital ad mission was necessary. In summary, these are the steps you need to complete using the new “Hospital Con finement Form” before an elective hospital admission: 1. Pick up a “Hospital Confinement Cer tification Form” from the Personnel Office. 2. Fill in the section “For the Patient.” 3. Take the form to your doctor and discuss the alternatives. If the deci sion is hospitalization, have him/her fill in the section “For the Doctor.” 4. Take the completed form with you to the hospital when you are admitted. Your cooperation and active support of the medical review program are essential in assuring the success of our efforts to pro vide quality health care benefits at a reasonable cost. This new Certification Form will enable you to have more of a voice in the decision-making on how your health care dollars are spent. Informed use of your Firestone Medical Benefit Plan will yield benefits for all of us. Remember, the purpose of this program is to save you and the Company un necessary medical cost. MEDICAL CLAIMS Recently, a number of medical claims were sent to the Firestone Charlotte Zone Office for processing. This resulted in an unnecessary delay because the Firestone Charlotte Zone Office has been closed. For prompt handling of your medical claims, inform your doctor and hospital (especially those located in Charlotte) to send all billing statements to Firestone Fibers & Textiles Co., Box 1278, Gastonia, NC 28053. Want A Second Opinion? It’s not an emergency, but surgery is necessary. So you’ve been told. Yet you’d feel much better with a second opi nion of your situation. But how do you locate another surgeon or specialist for that valuable second opinion? Reach out and call the toll-free Second Opinion Surgical Hotline. Operating under the auspices of the Federal Health Care Financing Administration, it offers this free service 16 hours per day from 8 a.m. to midnight Eastern Time. The Hotline’s number is (800) 638-6833 and (800) 492-6603 in Maryland. You’d rather write? The address is Se cond Surgical Opinion Program, Hum phrey Building, Room 313H, 200 In dependence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20201.
Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.)
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March 1, 1985, edition 1
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