Hi, welcome to Podsdale.

I'm your host, Holly Walter.

I'm the City's Public Affairs Supervisor and

I'm excited to be back if you can believe it.

We're here, episode three already.

Okay.

First, I want to start off with last week's question and

the person who was drawn and had it correctly in our random

selection was Public Works Project Coordinator, Melanie Gibson.

We asked where the Hashknife arrival was taking

place this week for Western week, and she

supplied the correct answer, Scottsdale Stadium.

Melanie you are receiving a Starbucks gift card.

We're going to be sending that over to you, and

we appreciate everyone who entered the drawing.

And with that, I'm going to turn things

over to Stephanie for our Fast Five.

Thanks Holly, I'm Public Affairs Specialist,

Stephanie Hirata with Five Fast things happening around the city.

You need to know, we start the list at number five.

What are you doing this summer?

You'll find plenty to do with Scottsdale's

Parks and Recreation programs.

Registration for summer classes began Monday,

April 26th for residents and opens at 8:00

AM, Tuesday, April 27th for non-residents.

Visit ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search

'parks and recreation' to sign up.

Number four is all about spring cleaning and getting rid of

the unused electronics you may have lying around the house.

Why not recycle them?

Solid waste will host an electronics recycling event from 7:30

AM to 2:00 PM, Saturday May 1st at the city's North Corp Yard.

Drop off those unwanted items, including flat

panel TVs, and computer monitors, PCs and laptops,

printers, and copiers, cell phones, and more.

For a complete list of acceptable items, please visit

ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search 'electronics recycling'.

The Old Town Farmer's Market is in

our number three spot, wanna veg out?.

Here's your opportunity.

The market features more than a hundred

local growers and specialty food producers.

You'll discover a variety of organic and pesticide-free

produce, seasonal specialties, flowers, natural

meats, and free range eggs from Arizona growers.

You'll also find cheese, freshly baked,

artisan breads, jams, and so much more.

The market runs from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Saturdays through

May in the public parking lot at 3806 North Brown Avenue.

Number two is the city's recently

adopted anti-discrimination ordinance.

The Scottsdale City Council voted unanimously to adopt an

anti-discrimination ordinance, which prohibits discrimination

based on actual or perceived race, color, religion, sex, national

origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

The ordinance represents the City of Scottsdale's commitment

to anti-discrimination and fair treatment of residents,

visitors, and employees in the Scottsdale community and the

city council support and value for diversity and inclusiveness.

The ordinance goes into effect on May 20th.

Learn more at ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search 'anti-discrimination'.

Our number one Fast Five spot goes to Scottsdale's

Chief Information Officer, Brad Hartig.

Brad joined the City of Scottsdale in May, 1991 and has

held several IT positions before he was promoted in 2004

to Executive Director and Chief Information Officer.

He has led the city through continuous business

transformations by integrating the effective use of technology.

He was also influential in forming the regional

wireless cooperative that provides radio communications

to 19 public safety agencies in the Valley.

Brad loves public service and his enthusiasm for it is evident.

He retires April 30th, after 30 years

of dedicated service to the city.

Brad, we wish you the best as you start

this new chapter, you will be missed.

And that's our Fast Five for this episode of Podsdale.

Got something for a future Fast Five?

Tell us by emailing communications@ScottsdaleaAZ.gov.

I'll turn it back over to you, Holly.

Thanks Stephanie.

And remember, we will have another

trivia question in this episode.

So listen up, it could be something in our

Fast Five, or it could be something in today's

interview, which by the way is about benefits.

Something that impacts us all.

Open enrollment is just around the corner, and

here with me today, I have Human Resources Manager,

Lauren Beebe to tell us all about what to expect.

Hi Lauren.

Hi, Holly,

Glad to have you here, let's talk benefits.

What's new for our upcoming fiscal year?

Well, Holly, I'm really happy

to share, the City Manager has recommended

no rate increases for the plans this year.

Our benefit plans actually run really well.

And while some members who might've postponed some

treatment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we don't

expect it to have a negative effect on our plans.

This is great news for employees, and the first

time we've been able to do this for a long time.

Wow.

That is really great news.

I'm sure everyone's going to be happy to hear that.

Um, along with that, we do have a couple of new benefit changes.

Can you tell us about what some of those are?

Sure.

We're going to have hearing aids added to all plans.

They'll be available every three years.

We're also covering diabetic supplies at a hundred percent.

Wow.

That's pretty huge.

I know from just my own personal experience, having a family

member with type one diabetes, that the supplies and the insulin

that can be a pretty costly expense for someone who needs it.

And it does seem like we've talked a lot

about diabetes prevention in the past years.

How does diabetes impact our employee population?

Um, was there a particular reason why the city

felt this was important to offer this benefit?

Yes.

We've actually been discussing this with our Total

Benefits Advisory Committee for several years now.

And this year we recommended covering them at

a hundred percent, maybe remove some barriers,

that employees might've had in paying for them.

We want to keep people that have diabetes healthy,

and this in turn helps keep our plan costs low.

We're also continuing to offer our Cigna

diabetes prevention program with omada.

That's awesome.

And you know, with one in three people at risk for diabetes,

it's good that we have this program in place with a omada and

some of these incentives to help people complete that program.

And yet another program I know that you're

here to talk to us about is a new one.

It's called healthy pregnancy, healthy babies and it's

another incentive program that we have for expecting moms.

How does that one work?

Yeah, we're excited about this one, so

any expecting mom who enrolls in either their first or

second trimester, will work with a nurse case manager.

And if they complete the program, they'll be eligible

for a gift card and we're so excited to offer those,

to ensure a smooth pregnancy for all our moms.

I'm sure that's, you know, puts someone

at ease too, who's expecting to have someone assigned

to them, a nurse case manager, to maybe answer

any questions or concerns that may they may have.

Exactly.

And motivate me.

That is yet another program we are rolling out.

What does motivate me involved?

We've just got some new incentives this

year, so in addition to the health risk assessment

that everyone's used to taking, it's still going to

be a gatekeeper for our, all of our other incentives.

But some of our new ones that we're going to offer, is the $120

we used to give for the HRA completion, we're now going to give

it for employees and spouses that actually visit their doctor.

We want employees to get preventative care every year.

Also, if they get a preventive cleaning with, uh, their

dentist where they'll be eligible for a gift card then,

and we also want to encourage healthy financial habits.

So it will offer incentives for anyone that will

meet with nationwide our personal representative

John Bennett or attend financial education classes.

That's great.

It sounds like it's pretty well-rounded program.

And as a, as a reminder to employees,

we don't pay for those wellness visits.

Correct?

Yes, that's correct.

As long as the visit is coded as

preventative, it is free to employees.

As a reminder, you might want to be on

the lookout for some of those gotchas.

There are some things that a preventive care

isn't covered because the FDA doesn't approve it.

So things like your vitamin D that's come up before.

So make sure that before you go and have an actual

test to double check, it's considered preventive.

Okay.

So just ask your doctor about that while you're there?

Yes.

Great.

And we've talked a lot about incentive programs.

We've talked about a few.

So can employees still earn the incentives for blood pressure?

Yes, they can still do the blood pressure.

So when they're going to get their preventive care

visit with their doctor, they'll bring that wellness

screening forum, which you can find on mycigna.com.

Bring it to their doctor, have them complete it,

upload it on mycigna.com and then there'll be eligible

for the $20 per month incentive for blood pressure.

They have to be either under one 40 over 90,

or be meeting with their doctor about it, but

it's eligible for both employees and spouses.

That's great, so this stuff really adds up.

Yes, we hope employees take advantage.

If you do your wellness visits and follow

all the different things that you can do, we

hope to keep employees healthy and engaged.

Right?

That's the ultimate goal.

Are there any other changes coming up in our

plan year that you would like to mention?

There might be some minor other ones.

I encourage everybody to look at the benefits guide,

that'll be coming out in the next couple of weeks.

That actually has a great grid that you can refer

to, um, as well as what's new for our plan here.

Perfect.

Well, we'll watch for that.

And we've also seen some great changes

within our employee assistance program.

We've had things like a dedicated psychotherapist

for individual counseling sessions.

We have more accessibility to telehealth and we've had

group sessions that touch on different mental health topics.

Will these things continue in the next year?

Yeah.

This past year has been challenging for everyone.

Uh, we know that Tori has been well utilized.

She's a great onsite, and virtual provider,

that will continue through the next fiscal year.

We also have Talkspace, which is a new, digital,

space for private and convenient mental health visits.

And then May is mental health awareness month.

So be on the lookout for all the

stuff we're rolling out for that.

Great.

And great timing to, to roll that out.

I've seen Talkspace.

That's an app, correct?

Yes.

It's a new digital app.

I'm sure it's going to be fun.

I haven't checked it out, but I'm going to try it.

Awesome.

Well, all good stuff to keep in

mind as open enrollment approaches.

And it's actually right around the corner.

It begins online from May 3rd and it runs through the 21st.

And as we know, all employees are required to complete

their enrollment on the employee self service intranet site.

I know this year, HR is excited to host

a live virtual health and lifestyle expo.

And I know you're also holding several virtual teams and

meetings for employees and family members to attend and

ask benefit questions and find out more about the plans.

What can you tell us about those?

Yeah, we're really excited this

year to try this new live virtual format.

It's going to be on May 4th, from 11:30 to 1:30,

and employees are going to be able to experience

different rooms well, where there'll be able to see

our different healthcare providers or other vendors.

We're going to have speakers and cooking demos, exercise demos,

stress management tips, and all kinds of exciting things.

And employees are going to be eligible for raffle prizes.

So if they visit a certain number of rooms,

they'll be entered to win some gift cards.

So stay tuned for the link to register for that.

Additionally, we're going to have some teams

meetings available both during the day and in the

evening, so that spouse have the ability to attend.

We encourage all of your family members to

come and ask any questions they have regarding

benefits, enrollment, or claims questions.

We're here to help.

And as we always talk about every year employees do

have a lot of ways that we can lessen the cost of our healthcare.

What are some of those things?

Can you give us a quick rundown?

Sure.

Cigna, the city's Live Life Well Program, offer a bunch of

classes and resources to help you and your family stay healthy.

We've got our Cigna medical group facility, we have

virtual care providers, we have all our wellness

incentives, which help offset any premium increases

or just to save money and put it back in your pocket.

One of the most important things all of us can do

to stay healthy is to see your doctor annually.

We want to make sure we take care

of any serious medical issues early.

We want them treated before they become more serious.

It's very important for you to stay healthy so that you

can be well here at work and have a happy retirement.

Lauren, that's all great information

to think about as we approach open enrollment.

And I appreciate that you were on the show today.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks Holly, it's a pleasure

and that's it for another episode of Podsdale.

But before I go, I do have that trivia question for you.

And this one comes from our Fast Five, who is retiring April

30th, after 30 years of service with the City of Scottsdale?

Email your answer to Communications@ScottsdaleAZ.gov

to be entered into our drawing.

And I'll be back in two weeks with that

answer, and another episode I'm Holly.