[DHS-News] Special: OHP Premium disqualification

[WHITEHOUSE Gary]

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dhs-news
March 27, 2003
Volume 4, Issue 33 SPECIAL
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Note: This issue was delayed by operator error.

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DHS has decided not to terminate OHP Standard clients on April 1, for failure
to pay their February premiums. Below is DHS Director Jean Thorne's message to
employees.

We're also distributing a news release on the subject today. Check the DHS Web
site's news page later today for the news release:
http://www.dhs.state.or.us/news/2003news/index.html

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To: DHS Employees
From: Jean I. Thorne, Director

Re: Postponing Oregon Health Plan disenrollments

We had planned to terminate April coverage for OHP Standard clients who had
not yet paid their February premium. 

But due to a number of administrative issues and confusion on the part of
clients and staff on how to implement this new policy we have elected to not
disenroll clients for April.

We are developing a number of measures to ensure that we can implement this
policy effectively in the future. I'll provide more information to you in my
weekly message tomorrow. 

A special note to branch offices: We recognize that our branches experienced a
flurry of activity this week as people attempted to make payments. Thank you
for your perseverance in this matter.

To help clients get their payments processed, I'd earlier suggested that
branch offices accept premium payments on behalf of clients. Please
immediately stop accepting payments. 

Instead, clients need to send their premium payment to:
OHP Premium Billing Office
P.O. Box 3949
Portland, OR 97208-3949

For more information about this program, please refer to the OHP2 frequently
asked questions page on our Web site at
http://www.dhs.state.or.us/healthplan/data_pubs/ohp2intro.html

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For more information about the Department, including all news releases, please
visit our Web site at http://www.dhs.state.or.us

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