SINDUJA KILARU/Daily
Fourteen-year-old Yara Almatroud, a Ann Arbor resident, works on her piece during a Korean clay art class hosted
at the University of Michigan Musuem of Art Wednesday.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, March 31, 2016 — 3A
3-News
News
Sustainability
progress outlined
in annual report
The University released
its 2015 Sustainability
Progress Report Wednesday,
highlighting their efforts for
a healthier and greener planet
and University environment.
The report outlined progress
the University has made with
regard to sustainability goals
for climate, waste prevention
and community awareness,
according to the University
press release.
“Like the very best qualities
of the University of Michigan,
our work in sustainability is
more than the sum of our many
excellent parts,” said University
President Mark Schlissel in the
press release.
Multiple efforts are being
funded by the University to
encourage sustainability and
progress in areas including
waste and greenhouse gas
reduction.
There are multiple goals
for the University’s future
sustainability programs,
including protecting the Huron
River through stormwater
control strategies, reducing
chemical application by 36
percent and purchasing more
University food from local and
sustainable sources, according
to the report.
Lincoln Project
brought to campus
The Lincoln Project,
a project focusing on the
importance of access to public
higher education, will come
to the University’s Ann Arbor
campus this Monday.
Former University President
Mary Sue Coleman and former
chancellor of the University
of California, Berkeley Robert
Birgeneau have led the Lincoln
Project for the last three years
to draw attention to the effects
that lower state investment in
public higher education could
have, as well as the role that the
government plays in funding
public research universities.
Following its introduction
to campus Monday, the
Lincoln Project will make
recommendations encouraging
the development of federal,
corporate and philanthropic
financial sources for
maintaining and establishing
public higher education
nationwide, according to the
University press release.
The program will take place
in the Vandenberg Room of
the Michigan League at 5
p.m. and will explore multiple
questions regarding how public
universities can address the
financial challenges they face.
Research suggests
personality could
impact e-mail style
Recent University research
found personality traits will
influence how people respond
to typos and grammatical
errors.
According to the
University press release,
while extroverted people
are more likely to overlook
typos and grammatical errors,
introverted people judge those
who send the e-mail errors
more harshly.
Linguistics and Psychology
Prof. Julie Boland said in a
press release that the study
examined social judgments
made by readers among 83
participants of the study. The
participants read typos and
grammatical errors and then
were asked to rate the e-mail
in terms of the friendliness and
level of intelligence from the
sender they perceived.
Intuitively, those
who reported grammar
as important prior to
participating in the
experiment were also more
likely to be bothered by errors
following the experiment.
—ALEXA ST. JOHN
NEWS BRIEFS
KORE AN CL AY
Gerber, who previously worked
with the center, introduced
the event and the center’s
goals in research and the state
government.
“The center considers itself
a think-and-do tank,” Gerber
said. “Its primary mission is to
go beyond research.”
Gerber said events such
as this aim to collect data for
research in order to push a non-
partisan, centrist policy agenda
in the state legislature.
“This
is
an
important
part of what we do,” Gerber
said. “Engaging in in-depth
conversations about important
issues with lots of different
people around the state.”
Center
Outreach
Coordinator Dwayne Barnes,
who moderated the polling, said
this event is the fourth in their
larger community conversation
campaign. He added that the
center will put on similar
events around the state of
Michigan for the remainder of
the calendar year.
According to data provided
by the center, only 20 percent
of Michigan residents currently
trust the state government
“most of the time.” The area
where participants typically
placed the least trust in state
government was in their ability
to protect public health. All
25 people polled Wednesday
answered that their trust was
“low” or “very low” in this
area of the state government,
and the Flint water crisis was
discussed as a possible cause of
this significant distrust.
The
participants
placed
the most trust in the state
government to foster economic
growth. However, even then,
only 32 percent said they had a
“high” level of trust.
Barnes
said
location
within Michigan could affect
participant responses due to
varying political beliefs in
certain geographic areas.
“As we go across the state, no
conversation is the same, and
that’s what makes this job so
unique,” he said.
Rackham student Jennifer
Mann said she participated
in the event because she
had heard about the center
and
was
curious
about
how they facilitated these
conversations.
“I think you’re hearing from
a lot of different viewpoints and
different voter bases,” Mann
said. “We’re coming at things
from different perspectives, but
you end up hearing somewhat
similar threads throughout,
which is kind of encouraging to
hear about a population living
in a similar area.”
FORD
From Page 1A
for benefits, said the Benefits
Office works with vendors to
develop plans for aspects such
as dental and visual coverage,
prescription
drugs
and
retirement.
“The
Benefits
Office
is
responsible
for
developing
strategy
and
developing
subsequently our health and
welfare plans for all University
faculty and staff,” Holcomb
said.
Keith Bruhnsen, prescription
drug plan assistant director
and manager for the Benefits
Office, said the prescription
plan specifically covers nearly
103,000 beneficiaries, including
faculty and staff members,
retirees and the dependents of
these individuals.
“The prescription plan is a
self-insured, self-administered
plan by the University in which
we provide coverage for out-
patient prescription drugs for
all of our beneficiaries that are
enrolled in any of the various
health plans that we offer,”
Bruhnsen said.
The prescription plan is part
of University efforts to limit
how much beneficiaries pay
for health care, according to
the Benefits office. The plan
recommends a number of ways
to save money on prescriptions
such as requesting generic
medications when possible to
pay the lowest available copay,
using the preferred drug list
to pay a lower copay on brand
name prescriptions and using
mail order programs to save
much of the original copay
costs.
“The University took control
of managing our prescription
drug plan back in 2003 so
that we could maintain both a
quality plan for the University
and its members, but also
provide
some
strong
cost-
containment strategies in terms
of managing the plan toward
appropriate use and utilizing
the internal expertise of the
faculty and staff here to help us
in our operations and strategic
planning,” Bruhnsen said.
Prior to 2003, prescription
drugs were embedded within
each medical plan, he said.
Each medical plan — whether
through
Blue
Cross,
Care
Choices HMO Plan, HAP HMO
Plan or other plans — would
monitor and manage its own
drug plans, but coverage of
drugs was sometimes different
from one plan to another.
Members were moving from
plan to plan in order to get
the coverage they needed at a
particular time.
As the cost of prescription
drugs increased, a University
task force studied these plans
and made a recommendation
to executive officers to include
a prescription drug plan with
other benefits to better manage
cost trends.
Along with general economic
inflation and use of specialty
drugs, an increase in Food and
Drug Administration approval
for
more
specialty
drugs
also contributed to the cost
increase, Holcomb said. These
specialty drugs require careful
management, dispensing and
monitoring, and can often
result
in
dramatic
health
care improvements for some
conditions.
In
particular
Holcomb
cited the release of specialty
drugs for treating hepatitis
C a year ago, which cost
patients nearly $90,000 for
an eight- to 12-week course
of treatment. Between 95 and
100 percent of the patients who
used this prescription drug
received complete remission
of the disease, indicating the
necessity for the prescription
drug plan to cover particularly
costly and specialty drugs.
Though only 1.6 percent
of the 949,000 prescriptions
that
were
dispensed
last
year through the plan are
specialty
medications,
$40
million was spent in 2015
on
these
prescriptions
through the plan. This was
a significant percentage —
about 37 percent — of the total
cost of the prescription drug
plan, Bruhnsen said. Due to
upcoming developments in the
pharmaceutical industry, he
said he expects this percentage
to increase to nearly 50 percent
of the prescription drug plan’s
total cost.
Because
of
these
cost
increases, the University holds a
separate contract for both mail-
order pharmacy and specialty
pharmacy, due to it being a more
cost-effective
arrangement.
For example, NoviXus, a mail
order pharmacy, supplies larger
quantities
of
maintenance
medication at a reduced copay.
Maintenance
medications
include those taken on a regular
basis, such as medications
for high-cholesterol or birth
control. The University uses
its own hospital pharmacy
specialty service for narcotic-
based medications that cannot
be shipped via the NoviXux
mail-order pharmacy.
“(Mail-order prescriptions)
are more cost-effective than
retail
pharmacies
because
they automate all of their
processing and they mail it and
it’s very convenient,” Holcomb
said. “They usually turn the
prescription around in less than
a day and often people receive it
the next day in their mailbox.
They have…low error rate and
very high satisfaction from the
surveys that we’ve done with
our membership.”
Ultimately, employees and
other beneficiaries are not
personally
penalized
due
to these increasing costs —
members have the same level
of
cost-sharing
copayment
regardless
of
whether
the
medication is a low-cost or
specialty medication — but in
general, the cost of health care
will continue to increase due
to these medicinal advances,
according to Holcomb.
DRUGS
From Page 1A