Representatives of the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) Customer Service Department have been instructed by the Division of Administration to be patronizing but not necessarily helpful or even supportive to callers concerned about the proposed sale of the agency.
An official memorandum, quoted verbatim below, instructs the OGB Customer Service reps to inform callers that “they have reached the right place,” and further directs them to repeat the same general promises that Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater made to the Senate Retirement Committee during Tuesday’s hearings.
Among those promises are pledges that would seem difficult, if not impossible to make with any certainty once OGB is taken over by a private entity. Those include assurances that members will continue to receive “quality service and coverage regardless of any potential sale,” the continuance of HMO and PPO health plans that will be “the same or better” than those presently offered, and that OGB’s reserve fund (the $500 million surplus) will continue to be used for its “dedicated purpose” to provide health coverage to state employees.
The memo instructs customer service personnel to allow callers to vent “briefly and reasonably,” but personnel are not to “suggest or recommend” that callers contact other agencies or people to voice their concerns.
Callers are to be referred to OGB’s “Latest News” section on the agency’s web page where, the memo says, OGB “will post additional info as it becomes available.”
We can only hope that the web updates will be more informative and forthcoming than was Rainwater at Tuesday’s Retirement Committee hearing.
Finally, calls from reporters or bloggers are to be referred to OGB communications.
Below is the full text of the memorandum:
O.G.B. Response to Calls from Plan Members about Privatization
The Division of Administration (DOA) wants OGB Customer Service to relay this info to plan members who call or write:
Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater wants OGB plan members to know that:
Plan members will continue to receive quality service and coverage regardless of any potential sale and privatization of OGB.
The Division of Administration plans to continue to provide HMO and PPO health plans with a benefit structure that is the same or better than the health plans OGB now offers.
OGB’s reserve fund will continue to be used for the dedicated purpose: to provide health coverage to state employees.
Refer plan members to the Latest News section of our website for more details if needed, which contains all the information now available, and tell them that’s where OGB will post additional info as it becomes available.
If they are calling to voice their concerns, let them know they have reached the right place. If they want to vent, allow them to do so (briefly and reasonably).
Plan members certainly have the right to call other agencies or people, but DOA cautions OGB employees not to suggest or recommend that they do so.
The Division of Administration (DOA) wants OGB employees to refer all media calls from reporters or bloggers to OGB Communications.
Louisiana Voice 
ok Tom, you are officially referred to OGB’s Communications Department… and for anyone else reading, whatever you do *puhleeze* don’t call any other person/entity (such as your representative or senator)
one other thing… that $500M surplus may be used to pay claims, as promised, (excluding, of course, the governor’s share) but that simply means that the purchaser will be using it while not having to worry about that first year or two of profits… yep, makes perfect sense to me – pay $150M – $175M for an entity valued at, if you count the cash (and what fool wouldn’t?), about 3/4 of a BILLION dollars
Tom — Anybody looked into the success/history of the Utah state plan? Maybe we are the only two states ahead of the curve with self-funding.
You are being sarcastic I presume about us not calling our representatives or senators?
Goodness, if people can’t see through this dictatorship . . .
Yes, that was sarcasm.
My state representative, John Bel Edwards, has consistently been responsive to my contacts with him on this and other issues. Despite the fact this will not always be true with your legislators, don’t minimize the effect your contacts with these people can have, particularly if others express similar opinions in large numbers.
It is encouraging that, for whatever reason, Speaker Tucker is voicing opposition to the OGB deal and other stop-gap moves by the administration that do nothing to solve our long range fiscal problems and are ill-considered in any case.
The Louisiana governor’s power is not so much a matter of legality as it is the fact he has positive poll numbers. All too often, our legislature rolls over and plays dead for fear of losing votes among their constituents.
Let your legislators know your position. How else are they to know?
Oh my Lord!!! Is the Jindal Administration going to keep up with their sneaky tactics to get control of the OGB and its monies????
Jindal, wake up, we are not a socialized government. Where does he get off telling the employees what they can and can’t say? This is scary. He makes it seem like the employees are his robots and to tell them the things his administration does is ludicrous. He HAS TO BE STOPPED BEFORE HE RUINS OUR MEDICAL BENEFITS! I am a retiree without Medicare and will never even be eligible for it. I don’t want my insurance in the private sector again; that happened in the 70’s and all monies were stolen. STOP HIM! WHAT CAN WE DO? I’ve already contacted my Legislator but what else can be done? HELP!!!
Cindy, I’m afraid you are imploring the wrong one to wake up. Jindal is wide awake and knows precisely what he is doing. Everything he does is carefully calculated to reap political hay.
It’s the voters of this state who need to wake up.