VRSEA

Recently there have been press reports about the State Employees' Health Plan being “moved into” the OneCare Accountable Care Organization.  Some of this information has been misleading .  What follows is a quick summary that VRSEA has put together to bring our members up to date on this issue. 

• OneCare is an Accountable Care Organization which has been formed to implement and manage Vermont’s Health Care reform efforts for the entire state.
• Two of the objectives of health care reform are data-sharing among physicians and payment reform.
• OneCare is not an insurance company and will not replace BCBSVT as our health plan administrator.
• A OneCare attribution does not change your benefits, copays, premiums -  or who you can see for health care.  
• Many Vermont hospitals and physician practices are currently in the OneCare network, including UVMHC and Central Vermont Hospital.
• If you are seeing a doctor who is currently in the OneCare network,  your doctor may be sharing your health data in a secure way with OneCare.
• This is true whether you are covered by the State Employees Health Plan (pre-Medicare) , or Medicare and with State plan wraparound.
• You do have the right to “opt out” of having your individual data shared with OneCare.
• Your physician can answer your questions about OneCare,  and can also provide you with an “opt-out” form for data.
• If the State ends up attributing the State Employees Health Plan to OneCare effective January 1, we expect them to send all health plan members an “opt-out” form.

This is not a simple subject to explain,  but we hope this info is of value to you.  We will keep you posted with further details as they become available.

Sincerely,