UC announced that Western Health Advantage will remain a benefit choice for employees and retirees in 2018, and that those who choose WHA will have access to UC Davis Medical Group.

This had been up in the air since earlier this summer when UC Davis Health announced that it would no longer be a provider of primary care to WHA members starting Jan. 1. That is still true for WHA members who are not UC Davis employees or retirees.

However, UC continued its talks with WHA and other health care plans, to decide UC’s menu of health plan options for 2018. (Open enrollment is scheduled from Oct. 26 to Nov. 21; booklets are due to go in the mail on Oct. 20 for delivery the week of Oct. 23.)

The decision regarding WHA came Aug. 22 in an email to benefits representatives around the UC system: “As a follow-up, we are pleased to confirm WHA will continue as an option within our medical plan portfolio for 2018, and UC Davis Medical Group will be available to UC WHA members currently assigned to that medical group and to any new UC WHA members who select the UC Davis Medical Group.”

The memo announced these changes:

• UC Davis Health will not participate in WHA’s “Advantage Referral” program, whereby members can self-refer for specialty care across medical groups. “Effective Jan. 1, 2018, WHA members who want to access UC Davis specialists or facilities must be assigned to UC Davis Medical Group for primary care.”

• Self-referrals for ob-gyn care and annual exams by those assigned to the UC Davis Medical Group must remain within the UC Davis Medical Group.

‘We’re looking for your healthy ideas’

The Healthy Campus Network steering committee has settled on a framework to make UC Davis “the healthiest place to work, learn and live,” and now is reaching out to the campus community — Davis and Sacramento — for “support and creative ideas” on how to get there.

The committee has four focus areas: food/nutrition, physical activity/movement, mental/emotional well-being, and smoke- and tobacco-free.

“We’re looking for your healthy ideas,” said Eric Kvigne, associate vice chancellor, Safety Services, who leads the steering committee. “With a goal of launching new projects January 2018, our HCN steering and subcommittees are asking for your support and creativity to help transform the health and well-being of UC students, staff and faculty.”

Healthy Campus Network is an outgrowth of UC’s Global Food Initiative, established in 2014. Each UC location is participating.

The UC Davis steering committee assessed existing health and well-being programs across the campus, and decided that within each focus area, the subcommittee will deliver one expansion project (of a program that already exists) and one signature project  — that is, create an entirely new way to promote the subcommittee’s goals.

More information is available on the Healthy Campus Network webpage. It includes a link (upper right-hand corner) to share your ideas.

‘Retirement 101 Short Course’: Oct. 3

This is an abbreviated version of the center’s “Transitioning to Retirement” course that meets one day a week for four weeks.

Note: If you take the one-day course, you cannot take the more in-depth, four-week course this coming January. (Registration for the four-part “Transitioning to Retirement” course will open in late October.)

Sign-ups are being taken now for the one-day pilot, to be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, in AGR Hall at the Buehler Alumni Center. Space is limited.

Celebrating Betty Irene Moore Hall

A grand opening ceremony for Betty Irene Moore Hall, the new home for graduate health education on the Sacramento campus, is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 13. RSVPs are requested by Sept. 25.

The opening comes 10 years after the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation committed $100 million to launch the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing — still the largest gift ever to UC Davis. Today, the School of Nursing includes five graduate-degree programs: Ph.D., physician assistant, leadership, nurse practitioner and the master’s entry program into nursing.  

Besides housing the School of Nursing and its programs, the new building also supports interprofessional health sciences education. Built at a cost of $50 million, the 70,000-square-foot building features collaborative learning spaces rather than traditional classrooms, to engage students, actively involve faculty and foster collaboration across disciplines. From writeable walls in small areas to propeller-shaped tables in large learning studios, the building encourages teamwork and active instruction. Read more about the new building.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for 10:30 a.m., and an interactive open house will follow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Contributing to the ‘public good’ — that’s us!

UC Davis moved up one spot to ninth in Washington Monthly magazine’s annual ranking that measures social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and Ph.D.s) and service (encouraging students to give something back to their country). Read the UC Davis news release.

Blood drive helping all over

The quarterly blood drive that came to campus late last month had even more importance given the recent natural disasters around the country.

“Our sister blood centers in Texas and Louisiana are counting on blood donors in other parts of the country, like Davis, to give blood now to support emergency and routine blood needs of patients in that area,” said Felicia LaMothe of BloodSource, adding that BloodSource is part of a national coalition that supports the needs of other regions.

The campus blood drive held Aug. 29-30 collected 239 pints of blood, with 339 participants volunteering to donate.

Next up: the 10th annual Causeway Classic Blood Drive, Tuesday-Thursday, Nov. 7-9. UC Davis is the defending champion.

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