Health Plan of San Joaquin | Focus Your Health | Winter 2019

Focus Your Health 5 L E A R N M O R E ! You can always learn more at our HPSJ Resource Center, hpsj.com/safe . Help for HPSJ members with special health needs At any time—day or night—you can call our 24/7 Nurse/Doctor Advice Line (HealthReach) at 800.655.8294 . Refrigerated meds Many refrigerated meds are stable at room temp for a few days. ● ● Keep meds cool, but do not use ice. Some meds, like insulin, lose effectiveness if frozen. ● ● Store meds in a cool, dry place and away from direct heat or sunlight. For questions about meds and guidance on storing insulins, please call your local drugstore and ask a druggist. Insulin Tips for you or your family member—we hope you will find this helpful and a good guide: ● ● Insulin should be stored at 36° to 48°. ● ● Once opened, it can be stored at room temp for up to 28 days. ● ● Low or high temperatures (below 35° and above 86°) can ruin a vial of insulin. ● ● Insulin should be kept as cool as you can in very high heat and guarded from freezing. Do you suspect that the insulin has been ruined? ● ● Insulin may need to be replaced if it: ➜ Is cloudy ➜ Has clumps even after you rolled it like you are supposed to ➜ Has threads or strings in it ➜ Has changed color ➜ Or your blood sugar stays high even after your normal correction dose ● ● In a power outage or crisis, call our Customer Service staff at 888.936.PLAN ( 7526 ), TTY/TDD: 711 (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.), or 855.828.1486 during after hours, weekends or holidays to get an early refill in a crisis . If you are worried about refrigerated meds not being safe to use and want a replacement or refill, call your local drugstore or druggist. ● ● HPSJ Pharmacy Services will allow members to get med replacements if their meds have spoiled during outages from non-refrigeration. ● ● In times of crisis, HPSJ’s Pharmacy Services approves at least a 72-hour supply of most meds without limit. This includes meds awaiting submission or OK of a preapproval ask. Certain limits apply. Electrical medical equipment Please call HPSJ’s medical equipment provider, Western Drug Medical Supply, 24/7, at 818.956.6691 , if you use life- sustaining medical equipment that needs electricity to work. Western can help you get other devices: ● ● E-cylinders ● ● An oxygen concentrator could be temporarily replaced with an oxygen tank ● ● A battery-operated version of your durable medical equipment or special batteries Tips for home dialysis patients ● ● Your home renal dialysis clinic will squeeze in any member needing urgent health care in a power outage. ● ● If you need urgent health care and cannot at once get to the home renal dialysis clinic, there is an alternative way to help you: ➜ Each machine has two hours of battery life in case of a power outage. ➜ For any power outage over two hours, each member has enough supplies for five to seven days to get dialysis done by hand in their home without electricity. —Continued on page 6