{"id":134332,"date":"2026-01-15T06:19:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/134332\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:19:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:19:06","slug":"agreement-allows-fresno-teacher-retirees-to-see-their-doctors-obtain-medication-refills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/134332\/","title":{"rendered":"Agreement allows Fresno teacher retirees to see their doctors, obtain medication refills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1140\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/prescription.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"writing a prescription\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"attach_desc\">Doctor writing prescription, Adobe Stock image<\/p>\n<p>Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) on Wednesday evening announced a temporary reprieve to the disruption of Aetna insurance coverage for teacher retirees at Community Health Centers.<\/p>\n<p>Community has agreed to an extension of retiree access to physician office visits and to receive prescription refills through Feb. 20. <a href=\"https:\/\/thebusinessjournal.com\/aetna-community-medical-fail-to-reach-deal-affecting-fusd-retirees\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Community and Aetna have been locked in a contract dispute since Dec. 31<\/a> that affects about 1,500 FUSD retirees on Medicare who receive care primarily at Community.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the retirees suddenly found their existing Community-affiliated physicians and caregivers outside of their Aetna coverage network.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FUSD officials and members of the Fresno Teachers Association (FTA) have been critical of Community during the dispute, saying the retirees were being used as pawns.<\/p>\n<p>Community Health System is actively negotiating with Aetna to provide \u201chigh-quality care at a fair rate,\u201d said Aldo De La Torre, president of Community\u2019s insurance services and managed care division, in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur ability to provide high-quality, accessible care to the entire community depends on contracts that fairly reimburse physicians, nurses, and care teams for the services they deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jhmbhealthconnect.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joint Health Management Board<\/a> , the body that ensures FUSD\u2019s employee-benefits plan meets FTA collective bargaining agreements, was scheduled to meet on Thursday to vote on alternative options to provide care to retirees, said FUSD Superintendent Misty Her.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctor writing prescription, Adobe Stock image Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) on Wednesday evening announced a temporary reprieve&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-134332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}