Sandra Knoesel responds to Shirlee Zerkel re: Questions concerning Medical Mutual

From Sandra Knoesel, November 8, 2006

Subject: RE: Questions concerning Medical Mutual

Dear Mrs. Zerkel:
We have spent considerable time working with Medical Mutual to investigate your concerns; however, we cannot find any instance in which Medical Mutual called your physician about preventive services such as mammography.

Medical Mutual does send information to physicians’ offices; however, they usually send these reminders to the physician who provided the service. If you could provide us with the name of the person who called Medical Mutual, we can continue to investigate this issue.

As you may know, preventative services in the medical arena are becoming more prevalent these days. Use of these services can be advantageous to enrollees in maintaining healthier lifestyles. STRS Ohio is exploring with its plan administrators providing some preventative services in the future to Plus Plan enrollees similar to the services provided to Basic Plan enrollees in 2007.

As an enrollee in the STRS Ohio Health Care Plan, you authorize STRS Ohio or its designees to use this information for medical treatment you receive, payment purposes, and to conduct health care operations. As part of Medical Mutual’s many initiatives to provide quality health care services, they send specific information to their providers and members about missed preventive health services. We usually receive positive comments from STRS Ohio enrollees about these reminders.

Sandra L. Knoesel - Deputy Executive Director, Member Benefits

To see Shirlee Zerkel's letter, click here