BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF MEETING

JUNE 15, 2006

[In these minutes: Employee Benefits’ Announcements, Doula Services, Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Work Plan]

[These minutes reflect discussion and debate at a meeting of a committee of the University Senate; none of the comments, conclusions, or actions reported in these minutes represent the view of, nor are they binding on the Senate, the Administration, or the Board of Regents.]

PRESENT: Gavin Watt (chair), Linda Aaker, Tina Falkner, Karen Wolterstorff, Jody Ebert, Curt Swenson, Eileen Zeitz, Don Cavalier, Michael Marotteck, Carla Volkman-Lien, Amos Deinard, Richard McGehee, Peh Ng, Theodor Litman, Rodney Loper, Dann Chapman

REGRETS: William Roberts, Sandi Sherman, Joseph Jameson, Carl Anderson, George Green, Fred Morrison

ABSENT: Rhonda Jennen, Carol Carrier, Frank Cerra, Keith Dunder

GUESTS: Jessica Atkins, Jill DeBoer, Terry Cook, Erik Jensen, Susan Lane, Dr. Elizabeth McClure, Charlie Rohwer

OTHERS: Joyce Carlson, Karen Chapin, Jennifer Durocher, Ronald Enger, Nancy Fulton, Joe Kelly, Shirley Kuehn, Kathy Pouliot, Jackie Singer, Phyllis Walker

I). Gavin Watt called the meeting to order.

II). Employee Benefits Announcements:

a). Mr. Chapman announced that a search is underway for a new Wellness Program Manager. Once the search committee identifies finalists for this position, open forums will be scheduled, which employees will be encouraged to attend.

b). A copy of the new U & Your Benefits newsletter was distributed to members. The newsletter contains information on Medex, the University’s medical emergency and travel assistance program, as well as a wellness update, and a MinuteClinic update. New Medex identification cards will be included in this newsletter.

c). Ms. Chapin distributed a sample poster promoting the University’s upcoming farmer’s market. The farmer’s market will be open the first Wednesday of each month from July 5^th, 2006 through August 30, 2006,

d). Members were urged to participate in the Wednesday Wellness Walks. On the first Wednesday of each month between May and September employees are encouraged to walk at 1:00 p.m. for 20 minutes on work time. If this time is not good, employees can make alternative arrangements with their supervisors.

III). Mr. Watt introduced the next agenda item, doula services and welcomed Erik Jensen, a senior building grounds worker at Centennial Hall and a Teamster’s union steward. Mr. Jensen is interested in having the University consider adding doula benefits to its current benefit set.

To begin, Susan Lane, a doula with the Childbirth Collective noted that a doula is a person that provides continuous emotional, social, cultural and physical support to a pregnant and birthing woman and her family. Doula services are quite common throughout the world, but in the United States the movement began in the mid to late 80s. Doulas promote a healthy, normal birth for a pregnant woman, and act as her advocate. Doulas do not tell a woman how to birth, nor do they make value judgments or decisions for their clients.

The Childbirth Collective (http://www.childbirthcollective.org/) was established in 1992 and incorporated in 1998. It is a statewide organization, which currently has about 300 members. The Childbirth Collective offers free parent information/education sessions.

Clients generally hire doulas privately although there are four hospital programs and one community program in Minnesota. Minnesota has the highest per-capita ratio of doulas than any other state in the country.

A packet of materials concerning doula services was distributed to members. Ms. Lane highlighted some of the possible benefits of working with a doula:

Less use of pain medications.
The ability to enhance the normal labor process, thus reducing the need for obstetric intervention and increasing the likelihood of giving birth ‘spontaneously’. (Women that use doula services have up to 50% fewer caesarean sections).
Less dissatisfaction or negative feelings related to the birthing experience.
Lower instances of having postpartum depression.

Next, Ms. Lane described in a fair amount of detail the process for choosing and hiring a doula and the types of services doulas provide.

An Employee Benefits representative noted that currently the University does not cover services rendered by doulas for licensure/certification reasons. Doulas do not meet the definition of a health care provider, as they are not licensed.

Jessica Atkins, a doula and doula trainer, addressed a question concerning how doulas are paid. She noted that aside from private pay situations, the Minnesota Department of Health and insurance companies such as UCare, MHP and HealthPartners pay for doula services. While the State of Minnesota does not have a licensure program for doulas, there is a certification process, which all doulas must go through that is monitored by Doulas of North America. Ms. Atkins went on to describe the certification process and Ms. Lane added that doulas must be recertified every two years.

Mr. Chapman stated that very recently the University asked its health plan administrators, Medica and HealthPartners, about covering doula services and they indicated that they do not contract with non-licensed providers. However, after hearing the information shared today it does appear that some health plans do cover doula services. Mr. Chapman noted that there are legal as well other considerations, which need to be thought through before adding doula services to the University’s benefit set. With this said, however, Mr. Chapman stated it would be shortsighted for the University not to explore this request further.

After a fair amount of discussion on the topic and receiving a testimonial concerning doula services, the BAC recommended that the Administrative Working Group (AWG) ask Employee Benefits to explore the feasibility of adding doula services to the University’s benefit set. Once this investigation is complete, the BAC requested that the findings be shared with the committee.

IV). Next, the committee received information concerning the University’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Work Plan. Mr. Watt welcomed today’s guests Jill DeBoer and Dr. Elizabeth McClure from the Academic Health Center Emergency Preparedness Program, and Terry Cook from the Office of Emergency Management.

Ms. DeBoer noted that the University of Minnesota Emergency Operations Plan guides coordinated and effective responses to emergencies on campus. Given the complicated issues posed by a pandemic, the Academic Health Center Emergency Response Team is doing additional, supplemental planning.

Over the course of the past three years the University has been in the process of revising its Emergency Operations Plan. This process has involved establishing new systems for responding to public health emergencies, such as bio-terrorism incidents or infectious disease outbreaks, on campus. Components of the University’s Emergency Preparedness Program include:

Designated public health officer for emergency response.
AHC Emergency Response Team.
U of M Medical Reserve Corps.
Annual Public Health Tabletop Exercise.
Online training modules for Medical Reserve Corps volunteers.
Active participation in local, state and regional public health preparedness planning.

An outcome of the Annual Public Health Tabletop Exercise, has been the identification of 10 objectives related to pandemic influenza preparedness, which the University needs to address in order to move its emergency preparedness efforts forward. These include:

International travel.
Targeted vaccine distribution.
Essential personnel, operations and services.
Surveillance and case investigation.
Healthcare needs.
Student housing needs.
Communications.
Internal coordination.
External coordination.
Providing service to the broader community.

While the Emergency Preparedness Program acts as the shepherd for the University’s pandemic preparedness planning efforts, various offices across campus, such as the Office of Emergency Management and Boynton Health Service, have been given responsibility to take action on objectives that have been identified. Once complete, the University’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Work Plan will be used to create its Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Response Plan. The goal is to have a draft of this response plan completed by the fall of 2006. The current draft Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Work Plan was distributed to members. (A copy of the full work plan and additional information can be found on the AHC website at www.ahc.umn.edu by following the Emergency Preparedness links). Ms. DeBoer noted that while this is a Twin Cities campus work plan, these documents are being shared with the coordinate campuses. Dr. McClure added that in addition to addressing urgent policy issues in the response plan, the goal is for the Emergency Preparedness Program to ultimately address educational issues as well.

Ms. DeBoer also reported that a University committee has been formed that will be exploring human resource and mission issues in the event of a pandemic. Examples of questions this committee will take up include:

If an employee is deemed “essential personnel” and chooses not to go to work, what implications would there be for this employee?
If an employee is considered “non-essential personnel” and chooses to go to work, what implications would there be for this employee?

Members were asked if they had questions, which they would like this committee to address. Committee members and guests then participated in a lengthy discussion involving ‘what if’ scenarios and anticipated events should a pandemic occur.

The BAC requested that consideration be given to the following questions:

Would an employee’s health care coverage continue if he/she were to be furloughed?

Would furloughed employees be able to use sick days or vacation days?

Also, a member noted that if the University intends to use its home page as a vehicle to communicate important information during a pandemic that it bear in mind that each campus has its home page.

Emergency Management Director Mr. Cook noted that the University is in the process of developing an operational continuity template for all units to complete to help them prepare for all types of emergency situations. He noted that a major difference between an operational emergency and a health emergency is that in a health emergency human resources are lost. The University is trying to do as much advance planning as possible so that in the event of a pandemic the situation will be as manageable as possible under the circumstances.

In closing, members were encouraged to visit the following URLs for additional information related to today’s discussion:

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/pandemic/en/index.html

http://www.pandemicflu.gov/

http://www.dem.umn.edu/

V). Hearing no further business, Mr. Watt adjourned the meeting.

Renee Dempsey

University Senate