New year, new Rx vendor for BJ

There are three things you can be sure of:

1. Death.

2. Taxes.

3. The BJ changes medical vendors for the new year.

So it’s nothing alarming or new to get the notification that EnvisionRx in Twinsburg will be handling prescription drugs for BJ retirees. And it’s understandable. Every year every company seeks bids from competing vendors and takes the one that the company thinks will be least costly to it.

EnvisionRX affiliate Orchard Pharmaceutical Services in North Canton will handle the mail-order prescriptions. You need to fill out the enrollment form, of course, and mail it in.

I checked the list of approved local pharmacies you can use and my Walgreen’s Drug Store on Howe Avenue in Cuyahoga Falls is on the list, so that shouldn’t be a problem either. You can go online to the EnvisionRX web site and see if your local drug store is on the approved list.

Then there’s ABJMeds, which will get the drugs from Canada, United Kingdom, Australia or New Zealand, just as I did for years after I hit the donut hole each year. It saved me thousands of dollars on name-brand drugs, which are outlandishly priced if you buy them in America.

As for the survivors among the 50 BJ retired printers and Guild retirees who won the 2012 healthcare lawsuit, there should NOT be any changes in benefits. But I emailed the Chandra law firm in Cleveland that won the lawsuit for the 50 retirees a copy of the BJ letter, just in case. Chandra assures me that the BJ attorneys will be courteously reminded that they cannot change benefits for the healthcare lawsuit survivors.

If you are among those who won the lawsuit, and there are ANY changes in your benefits from what you are getting now, email me at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com or phone me at (330) 388-4466 so I can alert the Chandra law firm.

The doctor and hospital benefits are paid through Medicare and AARP secondary coverage for the healthcare lawsuit winners. The BJ pays the premiums for the AARP coverage. There should be no change in that situation for the retirees who won the lawsuit.

The late Dave White, once BJ Composing foreman, filed the first healthcare lawsuit against the BJ, in 2009. Newsroom retiree John Olesky filed on behalf of the Guild retirees.

In 2012 U.S. District Judge David Dowd ordered the reimbursements and restoration of healthcare benefits at least equal to the retirement-day benefits the printers and Guild retirees had. That included the $2 co-pay for Guild retiree prescriptions and $5 co-pay for the retired printers.

As part of the settlement, the BJ paid the retirees’ legal costs by cutting a check to the Chandra law firm for $772,500.

The original 50 retirees in the lawsuit:

Gina White, of Venice, Florida, who with the late Dave White, her husband, began the lawsuit on behalf of the printers; Bob and Linda Abbott, Massillon; Ruth and Tom West, Rittman; Sid Sprague, Loveland, Colorado; Hugh and Sharon Downing, The Villages, Florida; Larnie and Stephanie Greene, Hartville; Joe Catalano, Akron; Lloyd and Claudine Bigelow, Cuyahoga Falls; John Costello, Akron; Dick Gresock, Medina; Henry and Kathleen Heinbuck, North Canton; Denzil Parker, Wadsworth; Rita Reeves, Akron; Bob Walker, Medina; Cecil and Josephine Santaferro, Akron; Isabel Watson (Blanton’s widow), Naples, Florida; Janice Hogg (Trammel’s widow), Waynesville, North Carolina; Russ and Martel Bendel, Wadsworth; Eunice and Bonnie Collins, Copley; Richard and Patricia Fair, Akron; Marjorie Hanna, Wadsworth; Bob Kendall, Berlin Center; Harriet Ledbetter, Canton; Norm and Naomi Mattern, Wellsville; Charles O’Neill, Akron; Fred Pollack, Akron; Don Reppart, North Canton; Ron Sanderlin, Canton; Charles Stadelman, Tallmadge; and Ray and Amaryllis Wolfe, Greentown.

Guild retirees John Olesky, of Tallmadge, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Guild retirees; retired reporter Dick McBane, Lilburn, Georgia; maintenance retiree Harold Bailey and wife Elizabeth, Kent; copy desk retiree Dick McLinden, North Canton, and retired photographer Don Roese, Cuyahoga Falls.

McLinden passed away in 2015, Reppart in 2013 and Dave White in 2012. There may be others on this list who are deceased. If they are, let me know at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll update my records.