Summer 2017 Summer is a time to relax and enjoy the beautiful outdoors! Centers Plan for Healthy Living is hoping that you are having a pleasant summer. Please remember to take steps to stay safe in the warm weather; keep cool and stay hydrated with plenty of fluids; before going outdoors, make sure to wear sun screen and protect yourself by wearing a hat. The relaxing summer months are also a good time for you to take care of your preventative care exams, such as eye, hearing and dental evaluations. In this issue, we provided you with some information that we hope you will find helpful for your routine preventative care. Wishing you a happy and healthy summer season! 1 Chava Lipsett Director of Clinical Operations MAPD: 1-877-940-9330 MLTC: 1-855-270-1600 FIDA: 1-800-466-2745 Contact Us: TTY: 1-800-421-1220 7 Days a Week 8am-8pm www.centersplan.com INDEX Preventative Care 2 Cataract Awareness 3 Louisiana Chicken Recipe 4 Summer Exercises 4 Compliance Corner 5 Crossword Puzzle 6
Member Educational Tips for Preventative Care When you feel sick, you see your doctor to get treatment and help you feel better. It s also important to see your doctor when you are healthy. This can help prevent you from getting sick. Your doctor can see what is normal for you when you are healthy. Then, your doctor will be able to recognize changes and symptoms that are signs of illness. It is also a good idea to get regular check-ups and screenings. A health problem or illness can harm you even before you feel sick. Screening tests and doctor visits can help find problems before you feel symptoms. This way, you can find illness early. You should see your eye doctor once a year. Your eye doctor will check your vision. He or she will also look for serious eye conditions like glaucoma or cataracts. These problems can cause loss of vision or blindness if they are not treated. Seeing your eye doctor regularly can help find these problems early. Then, they can be treated right away. It is a good idea to visit your audiologist (hearing doctor) regularly. You should make an appointment at least every two years. The audiologist will test your hearing. He or she may recommend hearing aids to help you hear better every day. It is also important to avoid listening to very loud noises for longer than a few minutes. This can help prevent hearing loss caused by too much noise. We recommend that you see a dentist once a year for a checkup. This can help prevent or treat dental problems like cavities. Even people who have dentures should see a dentist. The dentist will make sure that your dentures fit well. He or she will check your mouth for gum disease. Many dentists also check for cancer in the mouth. Brush and floss every day. See your dentist every year. These steps will keep your mouth and teeth healthy. Taking good care of yourself by scheduling and keeping these appointments will help keep you as healthy as possible. If you need help scheduling one of these appointments, call us at Centers Plan for Healthy Living. Our Care Coordinators or your Nurse Care Manager can help you make an appointment. Keep in mind that you may always use our transportation benefit to get to your medical appointments. Call your transportation company to arrange a ride to the doctor s office and then back home again. 2
CAtaract Awareness A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry vision, and halos around the light, trouble with bright lights and trouble seeing at night. This may result in difficulty driving, reading, or recognizing faces. Poor vision caused by cataracts may also result in an increased risk of falling and depression. Cataracts are the cause of half of blindness and 33% (about one third) of vision difficulty worldwide. Cataracts are most often due to aging. About half of the people in the United States have cataracts by the age of 80. Cataracts may also occur from trauma or radiation exposure, be present from birth or occur following eye surgery for other problems. People at risk are those with; diabetes, people who smoke tobacco, and those who have prolonged exposure to sunlight and alcohol. The diagnosis is done by an eye care professional during an exam. Once this is picked up, glasses may help in the early stages. The only way to remove cataracts, however, is surgically. The cloudy lens that has developed the cataract is removed and replaced with an artificial lens. This is done when the cataracts are causing problems and surgery will result in a better quality of life. To prevent the occurrence of cataracts, wear sunglasses when exposed to the sun; if you are smoking, stop; eat a healthy diet; and visit your eye doctor for your yearly eye exam. 3
SUMMER EXERCISES We all know that some of the main benefits of exercise losing weight and overall better health, helps lower the risk for diseases. In addition, there are other regular daily benefits to regular exercise. One benefit is happier moods when we exercise, even five minutes a day, our brain secretes endorphins. These chemicasl make us feel happy and can help with feelings of depression. These are happy brain chemicals. We sleep better when we exercise. Exercise raises our body s core temperature and after 5-6 hours when the body temperature drops, this signals the need for sleep. Studies show that not only do we take less time to fall asleep, but we have sounder sleep and less drowsiness during the day. Exercise helps improve concentration and creativity. It also helps improve our cardiovascular system, our heart, lungs and circulation, and the endorphins help stimulate our minds so we have more creative thoughts. Exercise reduces stress and anxiety. We all know about the negative effects of stress on our lives and our bodies. Exercise helps the body s ability to handle stress due to chemicals that help regulate the brain. The better we train our body with physical exercise, the better it responds to emotional stress. Louisiana Chicken Drumsticks Serves 4 Carb Grams Per Serving: 8 Ingredients: Nonstick cooking spray 8 chicken drumsticks, skinned 1 14 1/2 - ounce can no salt added stewed tomatoes 1 cup frozen cut okra 1 teaspoon dried thyme, ground 1 1/2 tablespoons Louisiana hot sauce, such as Frank s 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 2 cups hot cooked whole grain noodles Directions: 1. Lightly coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and place over medium-high heat until hot. Brown chicken on all sides, about 6 minutes, turning occasionally. Top with stewed tomatoes, okra, dried thyme, 1 tablespoon of the hot sauce, the salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 30 minutes or until no longer pink in center. 2. Place the chicken pieces on a serving platter. Stir the remaining hot sauce into skillet and spoon sauce over all. Serve with noodles. Makes 4 servings (2 drumsticks, 1/2 cup sauce and 1/2 cup noodles). 4
COMPLIANCE CORNER Centers Plan for Healthy Living (CPHL) is committed to providing our members with access to quality healthcare so that they can continue to live healthy and productive lives. One of our Managed Long Term Care Plan benefits is Social Adult Day Care. This benefit provides members with socialization, supervision and monitoring, personal care, and nutrition in a safe setting. CPHL wants all of our members who use these centers to know some of the rules of the Social Day Care benefit: The program can only serve people whose needs the program can meet and manage. The Social Adult Day Care services can t subsitiute for Personal Care Aide services or be the primary service needed from the Manged Long Term Care Plan The social day care isn t allowed to offer members any gifts or cash in exchange of member s participating in their program. Members aren t allowed to take any gifts or cash in exchange for their attending a specific Social Day Care program. Members should sign in on each day that they attend the program. Members aren t allowed to sign in for future days. Once signed in at the program, members should stay for the complete allowed time period. Another benefit available to our members is the use of Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Services (CDPAS). CPHL wants all of our members who use this program to know some of the rules about its usage: The member or member designee (i.e. the person the member says can act for the member) is responsible for hiring, training, supervising, scheduling and dismissing of the Personal Assistant (PA); The time sheet submitted by the PA and signed by the member must only show the actual hours the PA worked; The PA will only get paid for the hours that are authorized by the plan even if the PA works additional hours; and The PA will not get paid for time that the member is in the hospital. If you have any questions about these benefits, please contact your care manager for additional information. Centers Plan welcomes any feedback that you may have. Should you have any concerns or questions regarding a compliance matter related to these two benefits, or ANY CPHL benefit, please report it to the compliance department by calling 1-855-699-5046 or by visiting www. centersplan.ethicspoint.com. Both modes support anonymous reporting. Please provide all the relevant details such as: who was involved, where the issue took place, what happened, when the event happened, how you learned of the issue, etc. Your details will help the Compliance Department do a thorough investigation. 5
75 Vanderbilt Avenue Staten Island, NY 10304 Presort Standard U.S. Postage PAID Hicksville, NY Permit No. 885 Heart. Health. Home. Health and Wellness or Prevention Information 5. Another word for High Blood Sugar. 8. What do we put on to avoid getting sunburned? 9. How many glasses of water should you drink a day? ACROSS DOWN 1. High Blood Pressure, is called? 2. A person who does not eat meat or dairy products. 3. High energy food group as in bread, pasta, starches. 4. How many chambers are there in the heart? 6. Vitamin typically found in citrus fruit. 7. In order to stay healthy, you should 6