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Regional & Divisional News
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In This Edition
- You Make a Profound Difference
- Phase 2 of Specialty Referral Optimization: Sept. 13
- Drug & Alcohol-Free Workplace Policy
- Make the Most of Your Dental Benefit
- Protect Yourself from Phishing
- PTO Buy-Back Deadline: Sept. 30
- Epic Upgrade Coming Oct. 11
- Attention Veterans: Share Your Photos
- Dr. Destree Published
- Women in Medicine Month
- 2024 Health Insurance Discount: Oct. 31 Deadline
- Wondr Health: Apply Now!
- Advance Care Planning Update
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Valued Team Member, You Make a Profound Difference | |
Thank you, Valued Team Member, for the countless ways you contribute to our Aspirus story every day and for all you've helped our team achieve.
Click the video below to watch our fiscal year 2023 story (2 minutes).
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Phase 2 of Specialty Referral Optimization
Three specialties go live Sept. 13
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Aspirus Health continues to advance important work to optimize our specialty referral process and better serve our patients. This work is being implemented in phases to allow clinicians and stakeholders across multiple specialties to collaborate on the appropriate workflows.
The second phase goes live on September 13 and includes Neurology, Podiatry and Gastroenterology (including endoscopies and colonoscopies) services. These services are moving away from a geographic-based referral process. Referral coordinators instead manage referral work queues by specialty to select the best appointment for patients based on clinician, distance, timeliness and insurance coverage.
Phase 1 of this work went live in April 2023 with Orthopedics and Vision services and has garnered positive feedback from patients. Our standardized processes have allowed us to maintain timely scheduling for our patients while improving awareness of our Aspirus Medical Group (AMG) clinicians’ services.
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Drug & Alcohol-Free Workplace Policy
Aspirus continually looks for opportunities to unify our operations across our system to achieve consistency in the way we act and work. Aspirus Human Resources has unified the Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace Policy as a system policy to ensure all business units are aligned and following the same related processes. The policy it is now live in PolicyStat.
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Make the Most of Your Dental Benefit
We’re 2/3 of the way through the year! Make sure you are maximizing your dental premium dollars by scheduling your next dental cleaning before the end of the year.
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Aspirus offers the choice of two dental plan options (Base and Premier) and both cover: | |
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Diagnostic & Preventive Services – routine oral exams twice per calendar year, including teeth cleaning, bitewing x-rays once per year, and full-mouth x-rays once every 5 years. These services are covered at 100% and the deductible is waived.
- Fillings, emergency treatment to relieve pain.
- Check-Up Plus – allows enrollees to receive diagnostic and preventive dental services without those costs applying to the individual annual maximum, which means more funds are available for restorative care that might be needed.
The Premier Plan provides the same services as the base plan but also has coverage for major dental services like root canals, treatment of gum disease, crowns and orthodontia, including adult orthodontics.
The Premier Plan also includes the Evidence-Based Integrated Care Plan (EBICP) which provides additional cleanings and fluoride for certain medical conditions such as diabetes, pregnancy, high-risk cardiac conditions, and cancer-related treatments.
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With Delta Dental you can see any provider you like. However, you will save money if you see an in-network dentist. Delta Dental has two networks. The first is Delta Dental PPO – these dentists provide the largest discounts to save you the most money. The second network is the Delta Dental Premier network which has additional providers to choose from, but who offer smaller discounts. | |
Contact Delta Dental at 800-236-3712. | |
For more information on the Dental Plan, please review: | |
Check out the summer issue of grin!, Delta Dental’s quarterly wellness e-magazine packed with fun facts and tips about dental health to keep your smile healthy and happy. Watch for future issues at www.deltadentalwi.com. | Source: "The unexpected benefits of brushing," Delta Dental, grin!, Spring 2023 edition | |
Protect Yourself from Phishing | |
Phishing is a popular form of cybercrime because of its effectiveness. Cybercriminals use emails, text messages and direct messages on social media or in video games to get people to respond with their personal information. The best defense is knowing how to recognize phishing emails:
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Urgent call to action or threats – Be suspicious of emails that claim you must click, call, or open an attachment immediately.
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First time or infrequent senders – Carefully examine emails sent from somebody you don't recognize, or that Outlook identifies as a new sender.
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Spelling and bad grammar – Obvious spelling or grammatical errors may indicate a scam. These errors can be the result of awkward translation from a foreign language or a deliberate attempt to evade filters that try to block these attacks.
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Generic greetings – An organization that works with you should know your name. If an email starts with a generic "Dear sir or madam," consider it a warning sign.
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Mismatched email domains – Emails are probably a scam that claim to be from a reputable company, like Microsoft or your bank, but are sent from another email domain like Gmail.com, or microsoftsupport.ru.
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Suspicious links or unexpected attachments – If you suspect that an email message is a scam, don't open any links or attachments that you see. Instead, hover your mouse without clicking to see if the address matches the link that was typed in the message.
Cybercriminals can also tempt you to visit fake websites with other methods, such as text messages or phone calls. Sophisticated cybercriminals set up call centers to automatically dial or text numbers for potential targets. These messages will often include prompts to get you to enter a PIN number or some other type of personal information.
If you see something suspicious, please report the concern to the Aspirus Service Desk by calling 715-847-2300 or 800-297-8780.
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PTO Buy-Back Election Deadline is Sept. 30
Employees interested in participating in the October 2023 PTO buy-back program have until September 30 to submit their request in GHR using the PTO Buy-Back Submission Form under Benefits > Information.
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Upgrade Coming Oct. 11
Look forward to these features
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Clinic
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Updates to Health Maintenance topics.
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Additional questionaries available via MyAspirus.
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Decrease Duplicate Medication Refill Requests in MyAspirus.
Look for Hospital highlights in the next edition of Aspirus News Now.
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Reminder: The training dashboard(s) will be updated next Monday (September 18) to reflect the changes occurring during this upgrade that will directly impact Epic user roles.
How to access training:
- Press F1 from within Epic.
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The Learning Library homepage.
- Watch for a maintenance alert on the intranet.
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Attention Veterans: Share Your Photos
This Veterans Day, Aspirus plans to honor and highlight our incredible veterans once again on our social media platforms. We are seeking photos from current and former service members currently working with Aspirus.
Needed:
- Military photo + name and military title exactly as it needs to be written
- Current photo + name and Aspirus title exactly as it needs to be written
Submit to: socialmedia@aspirus.org
Deadline: Wednesday, November 1
Examples from last year:
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Dr. Craig Destree, Aspirus Hospitalist (Divine Savior and Wausau), co-authored a case study while on deployment that was recently printed in the July/August 2023 issue of Military Medicine, the bi-monthly journal of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS). The case study – “A Deployed Soldier Presenting With Dyspnea and Orthopnea Due to a Morgagni Hernia” – was originally published online in Military Medicine in April 2022. The objective of this journal is to promote awareness of federal and international medicine by providing a forum for responsible discussion of common ideas and problems relevant to federal, military and international health care.
Thank you, Dr. Destree, for sharing this case study and your knowledge with your peers. Please accept our deepest gratitude for your service with the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s Medical Corps.
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September is the American Medical Association’s Women in Medicine Month. Click below to hear the stories of two incredible women and Aspirus team members who embody the true spirit of health care. | |
Empowering Women's Health: Christiann Rosemurgy's Trailblazing Story in Medicine | |  |
Celebrating Sarah Walder: A Beacon of Compassion in the NICU | |
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2024 Health Insurance Discount
Complete your activities before Oct. 31!
If you are participating in the Health Insurance Premium Discount Program, the deadline to complete your wellness activities is October 31, 2023*.
Act now to ensure you have enough time to complete your activities before the deadline! Don’t wait – take charge of your health and well-being while saving big money!
Log into the wellness portal at www.managewell.com to check your status for the Earn 2024 Health Insurance Discount:
- If you see a colorful trophy stating you earned your reward, congratulations!
- If you see a greyed-out trophy displaying the percentage you’ve completed, you still have work to do. Click on “learn more” to find out what steps you may have missed.
Complete and submit all wellness activities before end of day on October 31, 2023*.
Contact Business Health (wellness@aspirus.org / 844-309-1269) if you have questions about your status or the steps you need to take to earn your reward before the deadline.
* If you were newly eligible for insurance during the year, your deadline is December 15, 2023. Log into the wellness portal for more details on how to complete the program steps.
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No points, plans, or counting calories. Wondr Health is a skills-based digital weight loss program that teaches you how to enjoy the foods you love to improve your overall health. This behavioral science-based program was created by a team of doctors and clinicians and is clinically proven for lasting results. When you apply the skills you learn, you won't just lose weight. You will sleep better, stress less, and so much more!
All employees are eligible to apply for the program. Spouses and covered dependents over age 18 who are enrolled in the medical insurance are also eligible to apply.
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Advance Care Planning
Conversation Corner
| Review the latest system work our Advance Care Planning (ACP) team is doing. | |
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Remember to Check Out Your Local News
Click the links below for your region/division to see what's happening locally.
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Regional & Divisional News
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