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Thursday, May 15, 1997

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UC conducting on Lab's health care plan
Wellness Center hosting annual Health Fest
Lab employee featured in award-winning program

UC conducting survey on Lab's health care plan

The University of California is surveying UC Laboratory employees about their experiences and satisfaction with the Lab's current health-care plan.

The university's Benefits Office earlier this month mailed out a health-care survey to a selected representative random sample of employees at the Lab, other UC campuses and UC-operated labs, according to Sam Gibson, the UC Office of the President's human resources manager for the Laboratory Administration Office.

The survey contains 58 questions and asks employees to complete the survey and return it to the UC Benefits Office by Monday. Spouses may fill out the survey if they also were covered under the health-care plan.

Gibson noted that the timing of the annual survey is coincidental and doesn't have anything to do with the university's process under way to select a new health-care provider for Lab employees and annuitants.

"We still want to document the perfomance of the vendor," Gibson said, referring to Prudential Insurance Co. of America, which administers the current Lab health-care plan. Prudential earlier this year announced it would not bid on the new health-care contract for 1998. The current contract expires Dec. 31, and four companies have submitted bids to provide health-care for Lab employees beginning Jan. 1, 1998.

Gibson said the university-Lab team may select a new health-care provider for the Lab as early as next month.

Accompanying the survey is a letter to "survey participants" from James Sullivan, UC's interim assistant vice president. "The university makes a significant investment in purchasing health-care for employees, annuitants and their families, and wants to ensure [that] the services being provided by health plans are meeting your expectations," Sullivan wrote in the letter.

"By answering this survey, you will be participating in the University of California's effort to decide which health plans best meet your health-care needs," Sullivan wrote.

The survey is divided into sections that deal with health services received by employees, further information on services, the prescription drug plan and a special section for members of the health plan who changed plans during the 1996 calendar year.

The survey also asks 15 questions -- under the section health and daily activities -- pertaining to lifestyle choices, such as whether an employee has smoked or now smokes, how much physical activity the employee engages in and whether the employee has had a medical condition, such as migraine headaches, diabetes, cancer, heart disease or hypertension, also known as high blood pressure.

A section at the end of the survey allows employees to make written comments about the health-care plan.

Survey participants are told in the cover letter that their responses will be kept confidential.

-- Steve Sandoval

Wellness Center hosting annual Health Fest

The Wellness Center is holding its annual Health Fest from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Otowi Cafeteria side rooms. The fest is in celebration of National Employee Health and Fitness Day and is open to University of California Laboratory and contractor employees.

Health Fest features several health-information booths, raffles, clinics and other activities conducted by the Wellness Center, Physical Therapy, Occupational Medicine and the Employee Assistance Program (all ESH-2), Aramark and members of the Ergonomics Committee.

Activities include Weight-Watchers-food sampling, proper lifting techniques, biofeedback, blood pressure screening, an ergonomics workstation and cholesterol screening.

The cholesterol screening actually begins one-half hour before the fest and runs to 10:30 a.m. The fee is $5.50, payable by check or money order only (the Wellness Center is prohibited from accepting cash). Also, those who wish to undergo the screening must refrain from eating or drinking anything other than water after midnight the day before. Participants will be contacted by Occupational Medicine when the results are in.

Information available at the fest will include that for Wellness Quest, a yearlong health-and fitness-program that begins that day, and Positive Health Directions, a new program designed to give Lab health-plan participants tools to better manage their personal health. The program is scheduled to begin sometime this summer.

Also as part of National Employee Health and Fitness Day, the Wellness Center is hosting the first-annual Oliver Trujillo Fun Walk/Run beginning at 11:45 a.m. Friday in front of the SM-30 General Warehouse. Trujillo is an employee at the center.

The walk/run covers about 1 1/2 miles, and the first 300 registrants receive awards and are entered into drawings for even more prizes.

For more information on Health Fest or the walk/run, contact Marta Gentry Munger or Jamie Aslin at 7-7166.

-- Ternel N. Martinez

Lab employee featured in award-winning program

Steve Howe of the Applied Theoretical and Computational Physics (X-DO) Division is among many engineers, artists, celebrities and others featured in the award-winning special "Living and Working in Space: the Countdown has Begun," scheduled to be broadcast Thursday, May 22, on the Sci-Fi Channel. Check local listings.

The special is an extended version of the 60-minute show that originally ran in 1993 on PBS, and deals with the day-to-day realities of life and most recent developments made in space. "Living and Working in Space" has won several awards, including the Golden Eagle Award from the Council on International Nontheatrical Events and the Gold Camera Award from the U.S. International Film and Video Festival.

During his brief appearance in the program, Howe talks about the difficulties involved in a manned mission to Mars as compared to the manned lunar missions of the 1960s. He also talks about using local lunar resources to make oxygen.

Howe also is scheduled to be interviewed by Bill Humphrey of Wingspan/Network today regarding nuclear propulsion. The interview will be used as part of a series of documentaries on the history of rockets.

In addition, he has offered to answer questions from students about his work in space exploration; his responses will be added to the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education's Web site (www.fasenet.org) within the next couple of months.

-- Ternel N. Martinez

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