Gary Johnson and I received the email below from Katy Lyon. If you are one of the retirees that was contacted by Anthem regarding enrolling in Medicare, please contact Katy or Janice Endo as indicated in the email below.
Rene G. Rodriguez,
President, VCCCD Retirees’ Association
On 1/30/2020 12:02 PM, Katy Lyon wrote:
Hi Rene & Gary
We wanted to keep you informed regarding an issue with Medicare enforcement with Anthem.
Several retirees have been contacted by Anthem recently and told that they must enroll in Medicare. Burnham has notified Anthem and Anthem is working to correct the change internally for the current plan year. As it involves several departments, it won’t be resolved immediately. However, once the Medicare Coordination of Benefits department receives internal approval they will reprocess any claims that were processed incorrectly.
Please have any affected retirees contact either me or Janice.
We will update you as we receive more information.
Thanks, Katy
Katy Lyon Benefits Analyst Ventura County Community College District 761 East Daily Drive, Suite 200 Camarillo, CA 93010 (805) 652-5535 phone (805) 652-7705 fax klyon@vcccd.edu
Because Steve Hall, Chief Negotiator for the local AFT, made such an impassioned presentation to the Board of Trustees on January 21, I decided that I could not deliver the written statement that I had prepared for that evening, and instead, made an impromptu presentation trying to highlight and support some of the remarks that Steve had made regarding retirees.
What follows is a recording of my impromptu presentation and a copy of the written remarks that I had planned to make that evening is posted below the audio link. I went ahead and distributed the written remarks to the Board after my presentation.
Impromptu presentation by Rene:
Written Remarks that were planned to be made
to the Board of Trustees but were distributed after
the verbal presentation (posted above) By Rene G. Rodriguez
January 21, 2019
My name is Rene Rodriguez, President of the college district Retirees’ Association. I served the college district as a faculty member and as an administrator in various capacities on all three campuses and at the district office. I retired as Vice President of Business Services from Oxnard College in 2004 after 34 years of service.
I wish to thank the Board for continuing to meet on an individual basis with representatives of the Retirees’ Association to discuss matters of mutual interest and concern to the Board and to the Retirees’ Association.
I also wish to thank the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor for helping to facilitate our next joint meeting on Thursday, January 23, with representatives of the District, Burnham, CalPERS (including Anthem and Kaiser representatives from CalPERS), OptumRx, the AFT and the SEIU. This will give the Retirees’ Association an opportunity to ask questions based on its review of the CalPERS health plans being proposed by the District.
This meeting will help us prepare for the General Meeting that we have planned with retirees on February 5, to share with them our assessment of the CalPERS health plans as compared to our current Anthem/Blue Cross and Kaiser plans.
In another matter, I noticed in the goals for your planning session at your recent Saturday meeting on January 11, that in mentioning all of the constituents that you serve as a Board, the students, the employees and the community, and the goals that you have set for them in the coming year, I noticed no mention of retirees as an important constituency. I am not sure if this is an oversight, or if you truly mean to exclude retirees as an important constituency and resource of the District?
Certainly the years that representatives of the Retirees’ Association have been meeting with Board members on an individual basis, have demonstrated the important resource that retirees have been to Board members in sharing with them an understanding, and historical perspectives, of educational issues that surface and keep resurfacing over time. Surely it’s time to start thinking of retirees as an important ongoing resource to the Board and to the college District, and include them in your talks and planning sessions to find ways to maximize the use of this readily available and invaluable resource.
The following is a message from Rene Rodriguez, VCCCDRA President
Dear VCCCDRA Retiree,
We recently sent an email asking you to check if your current medications would be covered under the proposed District plans. Your responses have proved very helpful. Thank you!
Now we want to demonstrate how important it is for us to have Anthem/Blue Cross as a back up to Medicare.
If you have Medicare Parts A and B, in addition to the District Anthem plan, please send your answer ASAP to this question:
“Did you have instances where Medicare didn’t cover something, but Anthem did?”
If so, please specifically describe what wasn’t covered in each instance (i.e. out-of-network counseling, a specific procedure, etc.).
What reason did Medicare give, if any, for not covering the cost?
Let us know if you have AFT or ASCC coverage when you respond.
Please respond to this email (vcccdra@gmail.com) with your answers, and they will be forwarded to Gary Johnson, Chair of the VCCCDRA Benefits Committee.
VCCCDRA is sad to announce the passing of Harry Kajihara on December 3, 2019 at the age of 91. Harry was a former mathematics instructor at Ventura College. Below is the published obituary in Ventura County Star from Dec. 12 to Dec. 18, 2019.
A memorial service for Hitoshi Harry Kajihara, 91-year-old, Oyster Bay, Washington-born Nisei, who peacefully passed away on December 3, 2019 in Camarillo, CA will be held on Saturday, January 11, 2020, 2 p.m., at the Oxnard Buddhist Temple, 250 South “H” Street, Oxnard, CA.
He is survived by his loving wife, Itsuko Kajihara, 3 daughters, Claudia Kajihara, Julia Miyamoto, and Alicia Mashiko. He is also survived by son-in-laws, Alan Miyamoto, Kenji Mashiko, 5 grandchildren, Kevin, Kimberly and Kari Miyamoto and Richard and Mitchell Mashiko along with other relatives.
Family requests no flowers.
Please use this link to read the published obituary.
Below is an email from Rene Rodriguez, President of VCCCDRA
January 13, 2020
Dear VCCCDRA Retirees,
MEETING ON FEBRUARY 5 FOR VCCCDRA RETIREES TO DISCUSS AND REVIEW THE DISTRICT CALPERS HEALTHCARE PROPOSAL
Please plan to attend a meeting presented by the VCCCDRA Exec Board and the VCCCDRA Benefits Committee to discuss and review the District CalPERS healthcare proposal. The purpose of the meeting will be for the Benefits Committee to share with retirees a comparison of the CalPERS healthcare plans to our current Anthem Blue Cross and Kaiser plans, and other related matters.
The meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 starting at 1:00 p.m. at the Wright Event Center, 57 Day Road, Ventura, CA, which is located at the southeast corner of the Ventura College campus at the corner of Day Road and Telegraph Road. There is parking right in front of the building.
Retirees have been asking questions by email too numerous and too specific to handle by email. Our goal will be to try to answer questions as they relate to the specific situation of the various categories of retirees.
FORMATION OF VCCCDRA AD HOC LEGAL COMMITTEE
We are in the process of forming a VCCCDRA Ad Hoc Legal Committee for the purpose of reviewing the need to bring legal action against the District should that become necessary in regard to our healthcare benefits.
We need to be ready to make a decision should the District decide to take unilateral action in this matter.
Anyone interested in serving on this committee please let me know by responding to this email (vcccdra@gmail.com) or letting me know at the meeting described above on February 5.
The following invitation was received from Ventura College:
“Please join us to celebrate the life of Connie Baker, former Technical Data Specialist for Ventura College, on January 31, 2020 from 2-4 pm in Guthrie Hall. Connie worked for the college and district from 1986 to 2016, and continued to assist when needed in retirement.
“Connie passed away unexpectedly on December 2, 2019 and is survived by daughter Beth Eubanks, son in law Jewels Eubanks, grandchildren Jackson and Bowie, siblings Steve Root, Terry Root, Pat Root, Christine Root, Jay Root, Craig Root, Cathy Twogood, and Damian Root.”
It is with sadness that VCCCDRA has been informed by Janice Endo at VCCCD of the passing of two retirees.
Richard Black passed away on November 8, 2019 and was living in Bishop, CA. Richard was an English professor at Moorpark College.
Clinton “Clint” Ragan passed away on October 28, 2019 and was living in Fort Collins, CO. Clint was a fiscal services technician at Moorpark College.
We have been unsuccessful in locating obituaries for either Richard or Clint. If any retiree has information on either of them, please email Carmen Guerrero at cguerr49@gmail.com.
