Resources / Materials
Website Resources and Materials
Planning Your Living Will
An advance directive (such as a living will) is a way to make sure that your medical decisions are known. It is an unpleasant thought, but what if you became too sick to tell the doctor what you want your care to be? Creating a living will allows you to communicate your wishes and make medical decisions in advance of care.
You can also name someone, known as a Medical (health care) Power of Attorney, to make those choices if you cannot.
Creating Your Living Will
Superior HealthPlan STAR+PLUS Medicare-Medicaid Plan (MMP) recommends all of our plan members take the time to create a living will, designate a Medical Power of Attorney and provide their advance directive to their primary care physician.
To learn more about creating your advance directive, please visit the Medicare website. You can find advance directive forms on the Texas Health and Human Services website.
Once you have completed your advance directive, ask your doctor to put the form in your file. You can also talk to your doctor about the decision making process of creating your living will or advance directive. Together, you can make decisions that will set your mind at ease.
If you should ever need or want to, you can change your advance directive at any time. You should make sure others know you have an advance directive. If you choose to designate a Medical Power of Attorney, that person should be made aware of your advance directive or living will as well.
With an advance directive, you can be sure that you are cared for as you wish, at a time when you cannot give the information. If you have signed an advance directive, and you believe that a doctor or hospital did not follow the instructions in it, you may file a complaint with the Texas Department of Health. If your directive is not being followed, you can call the state’s complaint line at 1-800-252-8263 (TTY: 711).
For more information on an advance directive, please refer to Chapter 8 of your Member Handbook or call Member Services. We are here to help!
You can help Superior HealthPlan STAR+PLUS Medicare-Medicaid Plan (MMP) with the way our health plan works. We have a Member Advisory Group that gives members like you a chance to share your thoughts and ideas with Superior STAR+PLUS MMP. This gives you a chance to talk about your concerns with us. You also have a chance to tell us how we are doing. You may ask questions or share any concerns that you have about the delivery of services.
Call Member Services at 1-866-894-1844 (TTY: 711) for information about participating in a Member Advisory Group meeting. Hours are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday. After hours, on weekends and on holidays, you may be asked to leave a message. Your call will be returned within the next business day.
Your current health plan offers an over-the-counter (OTC) benefit that lets you buy OTC health and wellness products. The catalog includes a list of OTC items that you can order and have mailed directly to your home.
There are three ways to order—in store, online, or by phone. You can also download the new OTC Health Solutions App. The app is an easy and quick way to scan items in store, view your benefit information and items offered, process an order, review past orders, and look up account information. Ordering is easy. Just follow the steps in your plan's catalog.
Click on the OTC Catalog link below for all of your benefit details:
- Over-the-Counter Catalog - English (PDF)
- Catálogo de artículos de venta libre (OTC) para 2024 - Español (PDF)
You can also connect to CVS® OTC Health Solutions to review products and store information.
Below is a glossary of terms and definitions for members to reference.
- Appeal - A request for your managed care organization to review a denial or a grievance again.
- Complaint - A grievance that you communicate to your health insurer or plan.
- Copayment - A fixed amount (for example, $15) you pay for a covered health care service, usually when you receive the service. The amount can vary by the type of covered health care service.
- Durable Medical Equipment (DME) - Equipment ordered by a health care provider for everyday or extended use. Coverage for DME may include but is not limited to: oxygen equipment, wheelchairs, crutches, or diabetic supplies.
- Emergency Medical Condition - An illness, injury, symptom, or condition so serious that a reasonable person would seek care right away to avoid harm.
- Emergency Medical Transportation - Ground or air ambulance services for an emergency medical condition.
- Emergency Room Care - Emergency services you get in an emergency room.
- Emergency Services - Evaluation of an emergency medical condition and treatment to keep the condition from getting worse.
- Excluded Services - Health care services that your health insurance or plan doesn’t pay for or cover.
- Grievance - A complaint to your health insurer or plan.
- Habilitation Services and Devices - Health care services such as physical or occupational therapy that help a person keep, learn, or improve skills and functioning for daily living.
- Health Insurance - A contract that requires your health insurer to pay your covered health care costs in exchange for a premium.
- Home Health Care - Health care services a person receives in a home.
- Hospice Services - Services to provide comfort and support for persons in the last stages of a terminal illness and their families.
- Hospitalization - Care in a hospital that requires admission as an inpatient and usually requires an overnight stay.
- Hospital Outpatient Care - Care in a hospital that usually doesn’t require an overnight stay.
- Medically Necessary - Health care services or supplies needed to prevent, diagnose, or treat an illness, injury, condition, disease or its symptoms and that meet accepted standards of medicine.
- Network - The facilities, providers, and suppliers your health insurer or plan has contracted with to provide health care services.
- Non-participating Provider - A provider who doesn’t have a contract with your health insurer or plan to provide covered services to you. It may be more difficult to obtain authorization from your health insurer or plan to obtain services from a non-participating provider instead of a participating provider. In limited cases, such as when there are no other providers, your health insurer can contract to pay a non-participating provider.
- Participating Provider - A Provider who has a contract with your health insurer or plan to provide covered services to you.
- Physician Services - Health-care services a licensed medical physician (M.D. - Medical Doctor or D.O. - Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) provides or coordinates.
- Plan - A benefit, like Medicaid, which provides and pays for your health-care services.
- Pre-authorization - A decision by your health insurer or plan that a health-care service, treatment plan, prescription drug, or durable medical equipment that you or your provider has requested, is medically necessary. This decision or approval, sometimes called prior authorization, prior approval, or pre-certification, must be obtained prior to receiving the requested service. Pre-authorization isn’t a promise your health insurance or plan will cover the cost.
- Premium - The amount that must be paid for your health insurance or plan.
- Prescription Drug Coverage - Health insurance or plan that helps pay for prescription drugs and medications.
- Prescription Drugs - Drugs and medications that by law require a prescription.
- Primary Care Physician - A physician (M.D. - Medical Doctor or D.O. - Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) who directly provides or coordinates a range of health-care services for a patient.
- Primary Care Provider - A physician (M.D. - Medical Doctor or D.O. - Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine), nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, or physician assistant, as allowed under state law, who provides, coordinates, or helps a patient access a range of health-care services.
- Provider - A physician (M.D. - Medical Doctor or D.O. - Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine), health-care professional, or health-care facility licensed, certified, or accredited as required by state law.
- Rehabilitation Services and Devices - Health-care services such as physical or occupational therapy that help a person keep, get back or improve skills and functioning for daily living that have been lost or impaired because a person was sick, hurt or disabled.
- Skilled Nursing Care - Services from licensed nurses in your own home or in a nursing home.
- Specialist - A physician specialist focuses on a specific area of medicine or a group of patients to diagnose, manage, prevent or treat certain types of symptoms and conditions.
- Urgent Care - Care for an illness, injury or condition serious enough that a reasonable person would seek care right away, but not so severe as to require emergency room care.
- CMS-1696 Appointment of Representative Form (PDF)
- CMS Best Available Evidence (BAE) Policy
- File a complaint directly with CMS
- Information to help prevent, report and stop Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
- Office for Civil Rights
- Medicare Beneficiary Ombudsman (MBO)
- For plan ratings and other information, please go to www.medicare.gov.
- Financial Literacy Guide (Office of Consumer Credit Commission)
- Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Policy Training Portal
- Spotlight on Health Edition 1 - English/Spanish (PDF)
- Spotlight on Health Edition 2- English/Spanish (PDF)
- Spotlight on Health Edition 3- English/Spanish (PDF)
- Spotlight on Health Edition 4- English/Spanish (PDF)
- Spotlight on Health Edition 5- English/Spanish (PDF)
- Spotlight on Health Edition 6- English/Spanish (PDF)
What is Superior Medical Ride Program (NEMT)?
Superior’s Medical Ride Program (nonemergency medical transportation (NEMT) services) provides transportation to non-emergency health-care appointments for members who have no other transportation options. These trips include rides to the doctor, dentist, hospital, pharmacy, and other places you get Medicaid services. Superior STAR+PLUS MMP is required to facilitate the most cost-effective mode of transportation that meets a member’s individual need. These trips do NOT include ambulance trips. Transportation services for Superior STAR+PLUS MMP members are provided by SafeRide.
What services are part of Superior’s Medical Ride Program?
There are many types of transportation services included in Superior’s Medical Ride Program. They include:
- Passes or tickets for transportation such as mass transit within and between cities or states, including by rail or bus.
- Commercial airline transportation services.
- Demand response transportation services, which is curb-to-curb transportation in private buses, vans, or sedans, including wheelchair-accessible vehicles, if necessary. These are types of rides where you are picked up and dropped off at the entrance/exit of your home or clinic.
- Mileage reimbursement for an individual transportation participant (ITP) using their own vehicle for a verified, completed trip a covered health-care service. The enrolled ITP can be you, a responsible party, a family member, a friend, or a neighbor.
If you need an attendant to travel to your appointment with you, Superior’s Medical Ride Program will cover the transportation cost of your attendant.
How do I get a ride?
You can request NEMT services through Superior’s Medical Ride Program provided by SafeRide. If you need a ride, call SafeRide. SafeRide has staff that speak English and Spanish and can also provide interpreter services if you speak another language.
You should request your NEMT services (rides) as early as possible, and at least two working (business) days before you need the ride. In certain circumstances, you may request NEMT services (rides) with less than two working (business) days’ notice. These circumstances include:
- Being picked up after being discharged from a hospital;
- Trips to the pharmacy to pick up a medication or approved medical supplies;
- Trips for urgent conditions. An urgent condition is a health condition that is not an emergency but is severe or painful enough to require treatment within 24 hours.
SafeRide
Appointments/Call Center: 1-855-932-2318; TTY: 7-1-1
Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. CST Monday-Friday
Where’s My Ride: 1-855-932-2319; TTY: 7-1-1
Hours: 4:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. CST Monday-Saturday
How do I change or cancel my ride?
You must notify Superior STAR+PLUS MMP prior to the approved and scheduled trip if your medical appointment is cancelled. To cancel or change your ride, call SafeRide at 1-855-932-2318 (TTY: 711). Please call 24 hours in advance to change or cancel your ride.
Who do I call if I have a complaint about the transportation program?
If you have any problems with Superior’s Medical Ride Program, call SafeRide at 1-855-932-2318 (TTY: 711).