FEBRUARY 15, 2016
Clinic closure notice for February
• Monday, Feb. 15: Closed all day (Tribal Chiefs Day/
Presidents’ Day)
Please be sure to plan ahead for
appointments and medication refills!
State-Sponsored Health Care
Coverage Recertification
If you receive information from your state-sponsored health care coverage
notifying you of recertification, it is very important that you recertify. If
you do not recertify, you risk a lapse in your coverage.
The Skookum Health Assistance Program is a payer of last resort. If you
have or are eligible for any other coverage, including local, state, federal
or private health insurance at a small cost to you, we strongly encourage
you to apply and use it as primary coverage. If you are eligible for cover-
age at no cost to you, you will be required to apply and use it as primary
coverage before Skookum will be able to pay.
If you apply for your state’s coverage or coverage through the federally
facilitated health insurance marketplace and are not eligible, you will need
to send documentation of ineligibility to the Save Our Skookum team. If
you apply and are eligible, we will need a copy of any insurance cards to
coordinate payment with the Skookum Health Assistance Program.
If you have questions, please contact:
• Barbara Steere at 503-879-2487 or barbara.steere@grandronde.org
• Tresa Mercier at 503-879-2008 or tresa.mercier@grandronde.org
• Loretta Meneley at 503-879-1359 or Loretta.meneley@grandronde.org
• Melody Baker at 503-879-2011 or melody.baker@grandronde.org
• Tauni McCammon at 503-879-1406 or tauni.mccammon@grandronde.org
• Erica Mercier at 503-879-2080 or erica.mercier@grandronde.org
Storytelling skills to help improve speech/
language therapy in Native communities
By Sarah Ross
Tribal Speech/Language pathologist
The love of storytelling begins by listening to Tribal Elders, becoming
entranced by Tribal storytellers and later learning to share our own story.
Our parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles all contribute to the stories
we share in our families and in our community.
Today, traditional stories are shared orally, in written word and on
stage. Renowned Northwest storytellers Ed Edmo, Sherman Alexi, Gyasi
Ross and Tlingit Raven Dancer Gene Tagaban are known for a variety of
storytelling mediums. The Tears of Joy theater in Portland produced a
version of “Raven Steals the Sun” in 2013 and JANE Theater Company
ran “Ghosts of Celilo” in 2011.
I’ve always hoped that Tribal stories would come alive for my children
like they did for me, so four years ago our family hosted our first community
storytelling gathering. Families from Washington, Oregon and northern
California continue to come together for this annual event. Our goal is to
provide a place for families to share. We want our children to hear these
stories again and again, because someday those youth will be our Elder
storytellers.
Among the participants have been Tribal members from the Coos,
Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, Coquille Tribe and Yakama, as
well as Grand Ronde Tribal members highlighting traditional stories of
the Willamette Valley and Columbia River. It is important to my family
that our children hear those sacred stories from our homelands and be in
those places that those things happened. During the different seasons we
will take them to the places that those stories took place and tell them
“Remember this!” so that they can see, touch and feel it.
The Grand Ronde Health & Wellness Center is working in partnership
with Worcester State University to document storytelling skills in Native
American youth. Information collected from this project will be used to
help improve speech/language therapy in Native communities across the
country.
Tribal youth ages 11 to 13 are invited to participate and will learn a tra-
ditional Columbia River story and receive a gift for their time. To sign up
or request more information, please contact Sarah Ross at 503-879-2006.
Sarah Ross is a Speech/Language Pathologist at the Grand Ronde Health
& Wellness Center and an officer on the Tribe’s Culture Committee. In her
free time, Sarah enjoys scuba diving and building relationships with plants
historically used in traditional medicines and weaving.
S moke S ignals
13
Mail order terminated for other Tribes
In October 1997, the Pharmacy opened for business at the grand opening
of the Grand Ronde Health & Wellness Center (GRHWC). The Pharmacy
was established to provide high-quality services to Tribal members and the
surrounding community; with a mission to provide excellent medicine, med-
ication counseling and responsive review. Pharmacy staff collaborate with
medical providers and patients to ensure safe, effective pharmaceutical and
non-pharmaceutical alternatives are considered for patient treatment.
In 2008, the Tribe ended the use of an outsourced pharmacy mail order
service for the Tribal health plans and the GRHWC Pharmacy began provid-
ing these services. This internally sourced pharmacy mail order service was
marketed to other Tribes in Oregon and Washington in 2012, and in 2013
three Oregon Tribes commenced using the GRHWC Commercial Pharmacy
mail order service. Current Pharmacy operations include services to Tribal
members, Native Americans of other Tribes, employees and community mem-
bers via local and mail order services.
The original intent of the commercial mail order Pharmacy program was to
provide a valuable service to other Tribes, while generating enough income to
cover all expenses of the Pharmacy. In October 2015, it was determined the
GRHWC commercial mail order Pharmacy operations were not profitable and
the program was detracting from provision of services to Grand Ronde Tribal
members; though the intent of the program was commendable, the expenses
to operate the program exceeded the generated income.
Due to this inequity, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde made the
difficult decision to terminate its mail order pharmacy arrangements with
the three Oregon Tribes contracted for the service. In October these Tribes
received a 90-day notice of the program’s closure and were notified the last
day of the service was Jan. 31, 2016. This closure does not affect other
mail order operations provided at GRHWC Pharmacy.
If you have any questions, please contact Kelly Rowe at 503-879-2236.
Important information for Tribal
members with The Skookum
Health Assistance Program
If you reside outside of the service delivery area,
this is important information for you.
For several months, the Save Our Skookum team has provided
information and correspondence to Tribal members and providers
about receiving Out of Network services. What does that mean?
That means Skookum uses a network of providers
(there are many networks and where you live determines what
provider network you are in) to receive discounts on services you
receive. This saves Tribal dollars while providing a large
selection of provider choices to the membership.
Starting in 2016, if you chose to receive services from an Out
of Network provider, the Skookum Health Assistance Program will
only pay up to 70 percent of the charges your provider bills for the
services you receive. You will be responsible for the other
30 percent of the charges.
THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO TRIBAL
MEMBERS WITH MEDICARE!
Please share this information with your friends and family and be
sure to contact us with any questions you have.
Tresa Mercier – tresa.mercier@grandronde.org; 503-879-2008
Barbara Steere – barbara.steere@grandronde.org; 503-879-2487
Melody Baker – melody.baker@grandronde.org; 503-879-2011
Tauni McCammon – tauni.mccammon@grandronde.org; 503-879-1406
Erica Mercier – erica.mercier@grandronde.org; 503-879-2080
ɫaxayam kʰanawi ɫaksta (Hello Everyone):
Time for your favorite Save Our Skookum team to start reminding Tribal
members without primary coverage to start exploring the Affordable Care
Act resources. This includes state Medicaid programs.
We need everyone who DOES NOT have primary health insurance cov-
erage to apply for coverage and provide proof of application to SOS. If you
are eligible for coverage at no cost to you, we ask that you use it primary
to the Skookum Health Assistance Program (SHAP). This saves the health
program (and you) by not paying primary.
SHAP is not insurance coverage. It is a payer of last resort, which means
the program is funded by the Tribe to assist Tribal members with eligible
health care costs and pays as a last resort.
This notice does NOT apply to members with Medicare, employee
coverage or other health insurance.
If you have questions, please call one of the SOS team members at 800-
775-0095 or 503-879-5211 and ask to speak to Tresa Mercier, Loretta Me-
neley, Barbara Steere, Melody Baker, Tauni McCammon or Erica Mercier.